Around Britain 2004

Tuesday 17th – Wednesday 18th August 2004

Plan B, having got ready to leave on Tuesday morning with forecasts of force 3-4, I woke up to a force 6 blowing the boats around on the pontoons.

Most of Tuesday morning was spent starting to make a dent in the collection of books I had brought with me, including Ellen Macarthur’s account of sailing around Britain in 1995. Ellen took the same route as I am planning but anti-clockwise starting from Hull. It was reassuring to read that in the first month of her trip she had had a mix of no wind and storms!

Hopefully I will not be struck in Pwllheli as long as Ellen’s two weeks in Hartlepool as I feel I am getting a little behind schedule. I have no fixed time by which I need to be back by but I don’t want to be in Scotland too late in the year!

Tuesday afternoon was spent having a good check over the boat and adjusting the way the reefing lines are secured to the deck. People who know me know I am always experimenting with different and hopefully better ways of doing things and the set up of Silverwind is just another evolving experiment!

After a wash and food, I decided to make use of my free membership to Pwllheli Sailing Club with a couple of drinks at the bar. The bar staff were all very helpful, allowing me to check my email in the clubhouse and giving me some ideas for how to kill another day in Pwllheli.

The good news of the evening was that the Met Office was now predicting that the storms that were sweeping through Southern Britain (including the disaster in Boscastle in Cornwall) would miss the north of Wales. The forecast for Wednesday was for force 4-5. Having seen the pressure charts, I was not totally convinced.

At 5am on Wednesday morning the force of Silverwind being thrown forward against her mooring lines woke me. With a good force 8 blowing through the harbour it looked like the forecasters might have got it slightly wrong! If the weather had been a little better I would have gone hiking again (catching the train into Snowdonia) but I sat down for another day of reading waiting for the forecast.



	Home Boat Challenge Log Contact Links Definitions		Tuesday 17th – Wednesday 18th August 2004 Plan B, having got ready to leave on Tuesday morning with forecasts of force 3-4, I woke up to a force 6 blowing the boats around on the pontoons. Most of Tuesday morning was spent starting to make a dent in the collection of books I had brought with me, including Ellen Macarthur’s account of sailing around Britain in 1995. Ellen took the same route as I am planning but anti-clockwise starting from Hull. It was reassuring to read that in the first month of her trip she had had a mix of no wind and storms! Hopefully I will not be struck in Pwllheli as long as Ellen’s two weeks in Hartlepool as I feel I am getting a little behind schedule. I have no fixed time by which I need to be back by but I don’t want to be in Scotland too late in the year! Tuesday afternoon was spent having a good check over the boat and adjusting the way the reefing lines are secured to the deck. People who know me know I am always experimenting with different and hopefully better ways of doing things and the set up of Silverwind is just another evolving experiment! After a wash and food, I decided to make use of my free membership to Pwllheli Sailing Club with a couple of drinks at the bar. The bar staff were all very helpful, allowing me to check my email in the clubhouse and giving me some ideas for how to kill another day in Pwllheli. The good news of the evening was that the Met Office was now predicting that the storms that were sweeping through Southern Britain (including the disaster in Boscastle in Cornwall) would miss the north of Wales. The forecast for Wednesday was for force 4-5. Having seen the pressure charts, I was not totally convinced. At 5am on Wednesday morning the force of Silverwind being thrown forward against her mooring lines woke me. With a good force 8 blowing through the harbour it looked like the forecasters might have got it slightly wrong! If the weather had been a little better I would have gone hiking again (catching the train into Snowdonia) but I sat down for another day of reading waiting for the forecast.

			"...goals are dreams with a timescale..."