By Oliver Shaw
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After an absolutely appalling season for weather, the worst that I remember in a lifetime, summer eventually arrived, three months late, in the second half of September. This was therefore the excuse to grab a further few days holiday, and take one of the GP14s back to Anglesey. I did briefly consider taking Snowgoose, my vintage boat, having recently commissioned her, but in the end I decided that since A Capella (my new Series 2) was already well set up for cruising that was the boat to take.
Objectively, although the Series 2 is in many ways the better boat, for cruising just as much as for racing, the Series 1 does have two important advantages for cruising. First, the greater clearance between the floorboards and the underside of the thwart is (probably) just sufficient to enable one to sleep aboard on the floorboards in reasonable comfort, whereas in the Series 2 I have previously found that I can stick it for only a few minutes at maximum. Second, in the event of taking in even a small quantity of water, whether through leaking self-bailers or leaking transom flaps or whatever, with a Series 2 this inevitably lies on the floor (once the self-bailer pockets are filled), whereas with the Series 1 it remains below the floorboards, and the floor itself is therefore dry.
I set off with kit for both camping options in the car; the more comfortable option being to find a camp site ashore, with all facilities, and put up the appropriate tent there, but the alternative option which is both cheaper and more flexible is to camp in the boat. I say the latter with some qualification, since my choice there is in fact a sort of half-way house; although I could at a pinch ship everything that I need aboard the boat, it is much more convenient to split camp, sleeping onboard but cooking in or adjacent to the car. All the food, crockery, cooking equipment, etc., stays ashore, while the tent plus inflatable mattress and sleeping bag go aboard only in the evening and come ashore again and are loosely bundled into the car the following morning. Overall, this much reduces the clutter in the boat.
The initial intention was to launch from Traeth Bychan, on the east coast, and have an attempt at getting round Lynas and into Porth Eilian, something which has been a pipedream for a few years now, but for which I have never found a suitable combination of tides and weather at time when I have been able to be there. I had thought that at long last this might be the opportunity. In the event, however, that was not to be, but this led instead to a delightful discovery on the other side of the island.
On arrival at Traeth Bychan in the early afternoon there was the predicted easterly, force 3-4, which had been blowing for about 24 hours, and I was dismayed at just how lumpy the sea was and how many white horses there were. Alright in a yacht, but not the most enjoyable cruising conditions for singlehanding a GP14. I fell in with a solitary Dart 18 sailor, who was just bringing his craft ashore, and was using the jib to sail her up the beach on her launching trolley, and after giving him a hand to haul her up the difficult bit we discussed the options and agreed that if one had the option the other side of the island was much more tempting in that weather. The only reason he had stayed put was that he did not have a road trailer available.
So I then set off, heading first for the Malltraeth estuary, where I had not sailed for about forty years, but on arrival in Malltraeth village at less than half tide I immediately saw the extent to which almost the entire estuary dries out. So I then looked at the map, seeking alternative launching sites further along the coast which I might be able to use over a wider tidal range, and preferably ones which were not too heavily inundated with visitors. The first such spot on the map was the twin bays of Porth Cwyfan and Porth China, reached via an unclassified (and unsignposted) single-track road from Aberffraw.
After a little over a mile the first view of the bay opened out, to reveal a small church standing on an island in the middle of the bay.
Then at the end of the road the tarmac degenerated into a very rough and steep track down to a boulder-strewn beach. My initial reaction was to rule it out, because there was no way in which I could launch there without taking the car down onto the beach - and even then it was strictly Land Rover country - and there was nothing to indicate that one was permitted to do so. However while I was attempting to turn round, in very restricted space, a local man working in his field assured me that I could indeed take the car down onto the beach, and further along there was a sandy part where launching would indeed be possible. So down we went, using bottom gear in low ratio; not least, this was in order to be able to go slowly enough to give the boat a reasonable ride.
To get there by water, as I learned from my subsequent sailing there, from the southward one passes Llanddwyn Island with its lighthouse, then the Malltraeth Estuary, then a green starboard hand buoy, and then Aberffraw’s Traeth Mawr; in the lower half of the tide the estuary and Traeth Mawr will both present as wide expanses of sand, but I don’t know how much of the sand will cover at High Water. There is a reef of drying rocks off the north side of Aberffraw Bay, which will be obvious enough when dry but which should be avoided when just covered.
The twin bays of Porth Cwyfan and Porth China form the next inlet, and the Church-in-the-Sea standing on its artificial island is an easy marker, as is the motor racing circuit on the far headland, with its slightly ugly buildings of an industrial/military appearance.
By the time I had driven over from Traeth Bychan, got the boat and car down to the beach, and rigged the boat and was ready to launch, it was then well into the second half of the afternoon. There was still time for a good sail, but not for a long one, before running out of daylight; and I wanted to be back in time to have tent and sleeping arrangements rigged before the light failed, and preferably have dinner cooked by then as well. So it was a short-ish sail, perhaps an hour and a half to two hours, in a nice force 3 and with flat water. The tidal stream at that time was flowing northwards, so I sailed southward (i.e.uptide) along the coast towards Llanddwyn Island before turning round and retracing my course, having the benefit of the favourable tide for the return.
I had no difficulty keeping clear of the rocks either side of the exit channel, nor in spotting anything beneath the surface. Indeed the latter was unusually easy because of the quite exceptional clarity of the water; one could clearly see the bottom even at a considerable depth.
Back at Porth Cwyfan after the sail I then anchored her close inshore while rigging my sleeping platform and air bed etc plus the tent, and then – with an offshore wind – allowed her to lie seaward to the full extent of the anchor warp while I returned to the car to enjoy a G&T while grilling a garlic chicken Kiev, which subsequently went very well to the accompaniment of some chilled white wine out of the coolbox. Where possible I like to still wine and dine reasonably well when cruising.
Then, with darkness already fallen, I turned in for an unusually early night, in an idyllic anchorage, after having first repositioned the anchor at maximum comfortable wading depth (on a falling tide), and looked forward to a really good sail the following day.
