Well!! Great weekend had by all. We got down to Caernavon on Friday afternoon & dropped the boat off at Chris's who kindly offered us storage (top bloke that Chris
) We met up with Steve (Kerny) & trooped off to the "Black Boy" pub for a couple of pints of "Snowdonia" & a good meal. The rest of the team arrived later & we all rondezvoosed (sic) at the cottage that Chris had arranged for us. After a lengthy committee meeting involving much refreshment & points of order, we retired to gird our loins for the trials that lay ahead
Saturday morning brought flat calm sea, no wind & hazy sun. By 9.30 we had the boats loaded with, beer, cool boxes, beer,tents, beer, bbqs, & we were off down the straight. We decided to take the anti-clockwise route due to the forecast being better for the Saturday & blowing up on the Sunday. The wind direction was a bit vague for the Sunday, with some forecasts giving SW & others SE. So with south in the wind, we were going to cop for it which ever way we went around the island. Going anti-clockwise gave us a shorter run down from Holyhead into the wind on Sunday.
We stopped at the Gazelle for refreshment as we were passing & bumped into Humber P4WLs Ma & Pa who had blanked on the fishing.
A quick run around Puffin Island (no seals) & we headed up the coast & called in at "Porth Wen" an old derelict brick works with loads of atmosphere & quite eerie.
After Porth Wen it was up to Middle Mouse & a play in the overfalls. The currents here are spectacular & show just how powerful the sea can be. Imagine being in a 1 tonne boat in a tumble drier!
We eventually arrived at Holyhead at around 5pm, a call to the marina office on Ch37 (M1) & we were assigned a berth for the night. There is a minimum £18 charge for up to 7m length, for this you get piece of mind, a safe berth, 24 hour security, hot showers & soft loo paper
worth every penny.
We offloaded the camping gear onto the breakwater, and yes I did ding one of my props
nothing too serious. Can anyone recommend a good prop shop oop north?
As we were setting up camp, the wind started to pick up & it blew steadily all night. Evening meal consisted of the days catch washed down with moderate amounts of beer & wine. We had Mackerel, Gurnard, Pollock & codling. Fried, barbecued & smoked.
We slept OK ish helped by the beer & wine, the wind was assisted by the combined snoring & fa***ng of 5 blokes (I'm told by Pikelet that laydees don't)
Sunday morning brought a steady SW wind & ominous skies, a full fry up prepared us for the trip ahead (no good chucking up on an empty stomach) we loaded up the boats (after taking advantage of the soft loo roll, some more than once, eh Steve
)
We suited & booted & made a good job of lashing everything down. We headed off towards South Stack keeping well to the North to give the overfalls a wide berth, even then it was "interesting" with a F5 over spring tides. It took us 2 hours to cover the 20 miles or so from Holyhead to the entrance to the straight, the previous day we would have covered the same distance in 45min. But at least nobody died
(although a couple of lads thought they might do)
The last hurdle on the trip was the sand bar at Caernavon, we were met by the tide in full ebb with the wind over it. A wall of standing waves, breakers & eddies lay in wait
We picked our way through surprisingly easily, I think that after the previous 2 hours battering we were getting used to it by now. We tried an hours fishing inside the straight but blanked, so nothing to bring home, apart from memories of a great weekend, thanks lads
Imogen
BLACK PIG
Piglet
)
They should have had Pikelet with them, talk about lucky, next time I see her I'm going to cut her foot off and put it on a keyring. 
makes me very jealous sat here revising. 
