26 May The Menai Straits

Enjoyed a very nice meal in Caernarfon after a lot of faffing around trying to tie up to a visitors buoy outside the marina. Luckily, our chief mate (promoted from second class for his outstanding steering) Jon Herod, guided us steadily enough for us to loop the rope through the wretched thing!
We had a fabulous view of Caernarfon Castle and the ancient city walls.

We said goodbye to our shipmate Dave and motored off in the direction of the Menai Straits and the Menai Suspension Bridge. A very hairy moment passing under it and desperately hoping the mast is not too tall....

 But once we sailed under and through, it was time to relax and enjoy the sporadic sunshine and look back at a great view.

For the techno geeks out there, this photo was taken by our drone and it worked very well as there was hardly any wind today and we could risk using it. We motored to our final destination as it was a short sail and no wind.
The views from our perspective of the boat were fab and we even spotted a dolphin or two. Sadly, they were camera shy so John wasn't able to take any photos but a pleasure to spot.
Past Bangor Pier with the bridge in the far distance.

It was a super sail; just chillin' and realising that the long sails from France and from Saundersfoot mean you can relax occasionally and appreciate exactly where you are and how far you've travelled.

Arrived in Conwy Quays Marina, which is pretty posh and full of Liverpudlians. At this moment, enjoying a glass of rose wine and about to head off for dinner. Catch you later.

25 May Saundersfoot to Holyhead to Caernarfon

Joined by Jon in Saundersfoot.  Great to have a buddy and knowledgeable sailor with us.  Welcome sundowners...

At about 08h00 on Tuesday we got going, without a great plan but knowing we had a fast boat.  A little sad to leave such a pretty place but glad to be moving again.

Jon has been a great sounding board and help.

We had a couple of snags, like a reefing line coming free, that he spotted and saved me pulling the line right through it's jammer inside the boom.  An easy fix but it would have been so much more hassle had I pulled it right through.  We also lost the shackle at the tack of the mainsail and some clips from the lazy bag, which is proving to be a pain.

We were off to meet Dave Sanders at Holyhead, in North Wales.  It seemed like a good place for the rv for ease of transport for Dave and for pushing north for us.  However, after a couple of hours of high speed it gradually became clear that we hadn't left early enough to catch a good tide.  Worse the wind was pure headwind so we were making slow and uncomfortable progress.  It soon became obvious that we would not be sharing dinner together.  Later we realised that Dave would need to get a hotel because we wouldn't be there that evening.  It was a long day and night (and next day) of frustratingly slow progress against the wind with an uncomfortable ride.  As the wind built and ebbed we put in reefs, shook them out and put them in again.  Good practice I suppose but it's never nice to be on the foredeck of a pitching yacht in the cold windy dark, in the knowledge that it wouldn't be good to fall.  We needed to make speed because we were so late to meet our friend, so we always flew the biggest sail area that we thought was just safe, day or night.

Jon split the night with me 2 hours on/2 off.  I'm slightly less intimidated by the boat so I got some sleep, for which I was immensely grateful.  I love the base guitar resonance noise as the boat accelerates past 9 knots and starts planing, but the slamming upwind and crashing on a confused sea is much less happy.  It was another long cold night but already the night is shorter than it was in the channel; this daybreak was 50 minutes earlier.

We eventually reached Holyhead at 13h00 today!  We stopped for only a minute or 2, to load Dave, then set off.  This time downwind to Caernarfon, with the happy base guitar singing noise at 12 knots boat speed in 10 knots of wind.  We'd been warned by the Dock Master that the bar would be rough but, in the event, it was fine.

We missed the opening to the harbour but we settled on a mooring buoy by 17h00.  Beers, shower, and ashore for dinner.  A good night.

23 May Saundersfoot

After a well earned 10 hours sleep for John, who crashed out the minute his head hit the pillow, we awoke to a beautiful sunny day moored up to a floating pontoon in the pretty harbour of Saundersfoot.

After 38 hours of non stop sailing, the interior of the boat looked like a bomb had hit it, with kit, provisions, clothing, computers, crockery etc everywhere. Most things had been stuffed underneath the saloon table to protect them from sliding around and from me tripping over them! We decided to tidy things up and put them away in places we'll probably forget where we've stashed them, when we need to use them! If you get my drift....senior moments loom ever large these days!
The Saundersfoot Harbour Master came by to say hello and to take a couple of photos of our boat in his harbour. They have big plans to promote this lovely harbour so a flashy, new catamaran using their modern purpose built pontoon will look great on any of their media information.

At 10.30 John fired up the tender and headed off to pick up his parents, June & Ian. This harbour dries out to a great sandy beach when the tide goes out, so he was able to collect them from the harbour itself rather than a beach landing, which we did later. It was another reason why we didn't want to go into the harbour itself as there were plenty of boats resting on their hulls and keels.  
Of course, we had to get the drone out and take some action shots of us all on the boat.

We had a lovely afternoon catching up with June & Ian, who kindly thought of providing some much needed alcohol, in the form of a couple of bottles of wine. They had the full tour and we sat outside and enjoyed the warmth of the midday sun before the wind picked up and we sat in the saloon thereafter.  We headed back to shore to attack a beach landing which involved me getting my feet and socks wet as we couldn't quite get the tender up the beach far enough, but it provided a few laughs. A quick shop for me to pick up some hardware stuff and more essential nibbles. The town is very pretty and well worth a look if you're ever this way.

Fish and chips for June & Ian and then they headed off to visit a friend, but they helped out our latest crew member by picking him up from the local train station.
Jon Herod, second mate, fourth class, has joined us until friday and we're looking forward to using his sailing skills to our best advantage! Hope he brought his sextant....

Another ship mate given the obligatory tour, a glass of french red wine and at 7.30pm, we're off back to town to find something to eat and drink.
See you later.

Day One...Dolphins to see us safely away

It was still pitch black when John got up at 4am to set the boat for sail. I had an extra 40 winks but joined him at 4.40am. Most people know me for a girl who hates mornings and they are to be avoided at all costs, but today was a very special day as we motored out of Lorient and the adrenalin kept me upbeat. My excitement hit the roof when John spotted the dolphins swimming beside us. By now the sun had risen and we could clearly see a pod of about 8 dolphins. Awesome!

As we sailed into deeper waters it was time to kill the motors and put up the mainsail and the Genoa and look to the wind. It was pretty cold so we were both layered up large and wearing our spanking new lifejackets and life lines to attach to the boat to save us in case we fell overboard! 

The weather was typical for Brittany, 4 seasons in one day, so we had wind, rain, sun and what felt like sleet. We had 12 hours of constant rain and our waterproofs were quickly soaked through. The waves were big and rolling and we were being bounced all over the place and unfortunately, I went down with a huge bout of sea sickness. Mortifying, frustrating and I felt incredibly ill for the rest of the journey. Happily after 12 hours the rain finally stopped.

Luckily, John is an incredible man and sailor. He has had to sail this technical, physical boat all on his own as I was no use to man or beast and slept for most of the time. He managed to shut his eyes briefly for an hour or so during the day and night of the first day. But he lived on his sheer determination and set the autopilot, trimmed the sails, trying to make them go at the optimum speed and was always looking out for other boats and ships which is not easy as our boat is quite broad and seeing to the starboard side from the seated position on the port side means peering through the windows of the salon.

There were a few boats around at night, particularly fishing ships and trawlers to look out for.

I missed the sunrise but came round to see we had passed Land's End and the sun was shining and the sky was blue with fluffy white clouds.  Rule Britannia!

We had a relatively quick passage at the beginning doing incredible speeds of up to 18 knots but then lost the wind and had slowed down to 5 knots, so John decided to take down the Genoa and raise the Genniker to give us more speed or we would be heading into Saundersfoot at about 10pm instead of the 5pm we had aimed for. It took a huge effort on John's part to rig it up but once done we picked up speed and achieved 10-14 knots

 Finally, we were sitting in the sun, enjoying the speed of boat and realising how superb she really is and how our dream is now a reality.  We reached safe mooring at Saundersfoot at 7pm after 38 hours and 324 nautical miles.
Marsaudon Composites have created a magnificent catamaran and we feel so proud to call the Number 7 boat....Ours.

The Skipper

At long last, John gets to sail our boat. A very happy sailor 😊

Launch Day

A surprisingly emotional and very special day.  I feel incredibly lucky.  A really special team and a unique boat.  The start of the day in 2 minutes:

Launched using the slipway that was built in WWII for submarine pens K1 and K2.

As soon as the boat was in the water, the boom and mast arrived.

Proud new owner!

The mast was a wake up for me.  I'd expected a lightweight mast, supporting a modest rig, since the boat is super lightweight.  However, it's clearly been made to support huge loads.  There is lots of cross bracing and all of the shrouds are as think as my fingers.  The guys have fitted a powerful rig to a super lightweight boat.

VHF antenna and wind vane being fitted to top things off.

Today it's more fitting out, probably with a 30 minute outing this afternoon to test engines and electronics.

Crazy Race Boats

The fastest ocean race boat ever, Spindrift II, in the marina in front of Marsaudon Composites.  A giant that dwarfs the huge race boats alongside it.  The pictures never give justice to just how imposing this boat is.

Prince de Bretagne (an Ultime class trimaran, built by Marsaudon Composites) back in the water today.