It is always a temptation to press on whilst the sailing is good. Another, more leisurely, way of circumnavigating Anglesey than the one George Graham took may be of interest as a comparison. Even taking three sailing days, we missed many bays and inlets which are left to visit another time. Eolet is very different from Pskua — a comparatively heavy old boat with a cabin, but drawing only fifteen inches with the plate up, so that her cruise may not be without interest to the dinghy sailor wishing to visit these waters.

In August 1968, Eolet sailed from the Dee to the mouth of the Conway on a long slow passage against light airs. The outboard was temporarily out of action, and even after we had bought and fitted spares, we completed the cruise without using it. There were three of us aboard — Geraldine, Jan, then aged eight, and myself.

We left our anchorage in the approach channel to the Conway at 0715 on August 3rd and ran across on the ebb to Puffin Island, which we wanted to explore. We followed the instructions in the Anglesey and North Wales Coast Pilot in finding an anchorage, and rowed ashore in the inflatable dinghy. From the sea, Puffin looks like a rock covered only with sparse scrub; actually, the greater part of it is covered by a forest of elderberry which submerges all but the roofs of the ruins of the old chapel and signal station. The island is a nesting ground for gulls, and dead immature herring gulls abound. The stench and the noise extend far to seaward.

At 1315 the tide was fair to carry us up to Beaumaris. There we anchored again and went ashore for provisions. We made the mistake of anchoring near the town rather than near Gallows Point, and were disturbed by noisy outboards giving displays of acrobatics.

On August 4th we were away at 0405, a little late to catch the brief slack water in the Swellies. It was a grey morning with a faint northerly breeze as we left Beaumaris and sailed past Bangor to the first of the bridges, the Telford suspension bridge carrying the A5. There always seems to be a complete absence of wind in these narrow waters with their steep, wooded banks. The tide takes one through fairly safely except for the fish weirs extending in four directions from the rock of Gored Goch — a menace. We used our sweep just in time to clear the weir and the Britannia Rock, on which the central pier of the railway bridge is based. From there until Port Dinorwic, we were becalmed, swept round in whirlpools, but carried along rapidly in deep water. We had breakfast as we sailed with a better breeze past Caernarfon Castle. At 0800 we passed through the narrows of Aber Menai and set a course for Pilot’s Cove.

Llanddwyn Island is really a peninsula, connected by a causeway to the sandhills of Newborough Warren. Pilots Cove is one of several little bays which make fair weather anchorages on its rocky coast. By this time, the sun had come out and a number of boats came out from the straits to this rather popular spot. We went ashore, explored and bathed, and then came back to an early lunch on board. We saw that we could easily have run the boat ashore on the steep sandy beach, though we had anchored out in the cove.

We left at 1215 with an offshore breeze. As we were bound for Holyhead Island, and as there was haze over the land, we saw little of the next stretch of coast. We passed outside Careg y Trai and tacked through Rhoscolyn Sound. Rhoscolyn itself looked an attractive cove, but we decided that Trearddur Bay would be a good starting place for our passage round the Stacks next day. We reached it at 1615, and anchored in the only place which the Anglesey and North Wales Coast Pilot will admit to be free from mooring chains, in Towyn-y-Capel. Next morning Geraldine and Jan were ashore getting the spares we needed for the engine when I was asked to move as racing was about to start in the bay. This meant that we left earlier than we had intended, and hence had the tide against us for our passage round South Stack. North and South Stacks are rocks standing out from this north-western extremity of Holyhead Island. There are tide races off them, so it is important to get the tide right.

The forecast of N.E. 3 was about right. We sailed at 1040 and tacked far out to sea on our way round South Stack with its lighthouse and bridge over the chasm separating it from the shore. At 1330 the tide turned in our favour and we held one tack right past North Stack and all the way to Holyhead Harbour breakwater. Two Irish mailboats passed each other close to us as we neared the harbour.

At 1500 we tacked round the breakwater. Another tack took us clear of Cliperas Rocks and the next to Fiddlyn Island. We could only glimpse the lighthouse on the Skerries through the mist which now shrouded the shore again. At 1630 we tacked out to Carmel Rocks and then back to pass Carmel Head. There was a race here — not too bad, but a shackle pin from the lee shrouds came undone and had to be replaced hastily in rather exciting conditions. We held this tack as far as Harry Furlong Rocks, following the course shown in the Anglesey and North Wales Coast Pilot. On we sailed, past Wylfa Head where the atomic power station is, and at 1830 we reached Cemaes Bay. I would suggest this as the best anchorage on this north coast between Holyhead Bay and Point Lynas. There are coves giving shelter in all except due northerly winds, and a drying harbour which could be used in an emergency. The proximity of the power station has not spoilt the bay, as I had feared it would.

On 6th August there was a big swell coming in from the north, the wind remaining NE 6 was forecast, which would make a very lumpy sea as the tide ran against it. We waited a day and walked up to the bracken covered summit of Dinas Gynfor, the most northerly point of Anglesey. From there the sea looked quite unpleasantly covered with white.

On 7th August force 6 was still forecast, but things seamed calmer, and the swell made me fear worse was to come, and that we would be better clear of this inhospitable north coast. We sailed at 0600, tacking out to Wylfa Head and between Middle Mouse and Dinas Gynfor. We held this tack to Porth Llechog, and then tacked out to sea for ten minutes. After this we could clear Point Lynas. There is a pleasant cove here, and when the wind is not fresh from the north, a boat can be anchored or beached in it.

From 0810 until 1100 we sailed well on a course for Puffin Sound, almost out of sight of the shoreline between. There are many bays and inlets here, most of them accessible only at high tide. Moelfre is a place providing shelter in offshore winds, and a beach where one can pull up a dinghy. In Moelfre Roads one often sees coasters and fishing craft sheltering from north-westerly gales.

At 1100 the wind died away, leaving us wallowing in the swell, the centreboard banging about, the boom slatting. The forecast at 1300 was 5 or 6 locally 7 NE. We wished just a little of it would arrive: which it did about 1430. By 1520 we were passing through the Puffin strait between the beacon and the lighthouse and were back in calm water. Our circumnavigation was complete.

The course we followed round Anglesey is 72 miles, but we actually covered 84 miles in 27 hours under way.