A Day Of Firsts

A Day Of Firsts

Greetings from Liverpool,

I have made the passage from Holyhead to Liverpool ready for the Northern Boat show this weekend.

I left Holyhead at 0600 and headed for the inside passage around the skerries as the weather was fine I new that I would be OK with the overfalls and tide.

As I was clear of the skerries the new weather report was broadcast by the coast guard, it was giving the wind building to a 4-5 with 6 later on from the North. I was on a beam reach all the way which made for some good speed. The forecast wasn’t wrong and the wind started building and along with this came a more lively sea state and soon the odd wave was coming over the top of me and giving me a good soaking.

I have been having some issues with the auto pilot and where it fits into the deck, I thought I had managed to overcome this but it wasn’t to be so it was made redundant for the second time. All being well this will be sorted whilst in Liverpool.

As I made my way along the North Wales coast I soon saw my first signs that I was going into my biggest port yet. There were two tankers anchored up and then over the horizon I could make out the first wind farm. Sailing out of Cardiff this was a whole new obstacle to take care of as I had not seen them before so caution was taken, but what a sight they are and a real feat of engineering.

As I thought this was a day of firsts sailing past the wind farm off my port beam there was the first gas drilling rig as I made my way through the TSS this was also the first of the trip as I had managed to avoid them this far.

I made it through those navigational hazards and Liverpool came into sight, I could see three very large tankers anchored up waiting to unload into Liverpool… so this was the start to the approach.

By this time the wind was blowing 25 knts and the sea state was still very lumpy and I now had to navigate the main channel jumping from buoy to buoy to ensure I was well away from any commercial traffic, the Mersey vts were very helpful and made all the shipping aware that I was there and my intentions.

As I approached Liverpool marina I was the other side of the river so I had to cross over, the one thing that I hadn’t appreciated was the force of the tide and this was running at fast 5 knots so this made the entrance interesting.

As I entered the dock I was greeted by a very kind police frogman who helped me with my lines as they had been out on the river training for the day.

All in all it was a very pleasant sail if not daunting at times with all the new experiences but we did well and didn’t get in the way of anyone.

We are here in Liverpool for the Northern Boat show which takes place on the 3rd 4th and 5th of June so please do come down and say hello and show your support. Don’t forget to get on the Facebook page and keep following and supporting us.

Until next time

Alex

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