Following on from our article on traversing North Wales’ treacherous Swellies south to north in our March issue, Don Smith now makes the return trip
A few weeks before, we had delivered my neighbour’s boat, Inthral, from Victoria Dock, Caernarfon, to Deganwy for some deck repairs. With phase one complete, it was time to return to Caernarfon before what remained of the sailing season passed us by. Phase two would have to wait for the following season to avoid damp weather spoiling the bonding. With the usual suspects for crew – skipper John plus Dave, Don and Phil – we sailed on the morning spring tide, as soon as the Deganwy Marina gate opened. It was three hours before local high water (~0830) and we got out past the Beacons landing stage without an epic struggle against the rushing incoming spring tide.
The outward leg from Caernarfon to the Conwy River was straight forward, all the tidal gates open at every stage. For the return passage we would retrace our outbound route, crossing the Penmean Swatch and then through the Swellies, but this time the four tidal gates would be out of phase.
Tidal gates
Our first tidal gate was the Penmean Swatch, open at about 90 minutes before high water, and fitted in very nicely with our departure time. After passing the Beacons landing stage, we followed the buoyage, turning to port at the Perch, following buoyed channel to C2 from where we steered for the Pool at the south end of Penmean Swatch. Approaching the Pool, with Great Orme LHE bearing 050° and the Pen y Clip tunnel west bearing 135°, we were due to alter course into the Penmean Swatch. As the pilot for the first half of the passage I was about to recommend a course change but the helmsman followed the chart plotter, all the way over, without incident.
The second tidal gate was the Swellies transit but, as a speed-limited displacement boat, we would miss the brief high-water slack (~0958), after which the Swellies would be bumpy on the spring tide that can run at up to 8kts. In his previous boat, skipper John was spun 360° in one of the eddies and he preferred to avoid any further pirouettes. We would wait at a Menai Bridge mooring for a couple of hours and eat our packed lunches. In a fast powerboat we could have made the slack period easily and probably made Victoria Dock before their gate closed at 1341.
The third gate was the Diffuser-C14 buoys, because of the shallowness of that area, and finally the fourth gate was the Victoria Dock which would be closed until 20.00 and we planned to wai
