Thursday 3 June 2010 Pwllheli N520 53 W0040 23’

To celebrate (not sure what!), dinner ashore last night in the local Bistro – an intriguing mixture of eating in someone’s front room and the local café, but the steak was good and the wine excellent. It was clearly very popular with the locals. Despite recommendations from Dr Oliver Burdall, we declined the pleasures of the pier nightclub so there are no Ted stories to rival the pink tutus of Guernsey (For details apply to selected members of the Alcy1 Race Team).

Alcyone had to wait for the tide to get out of Aberystwyth but was able to creep out mid morning with just enough water, bound for Pwllheli. An almost windless day with a very gentle oily swell and so motored all day. Our course took us along the coast, generally some 10 miles offshore with magnificent views of the Welsh coast and mountains beyond including Snowden. The harsh bare rocky cliffs of St David’s Head have gradually given way to gentler coast line with rolling green fields beyond. At one point dolphins briefly again came to play and later a sea lion put his head up to see what was going on.

It has been a passage of coping with recalcitrant electronics. First the Yeoman Plotter decided to be difficult and at one stage seemed irrevocably locked into ‘Demo mode’. Eventually the obscure combinations of button pushes required were determined and it came back to life. Then the laptop came out for fixing following frustrations over the last few days; for some time it has been crashing to a blue/white splash screen with dire statements that it had recovered from a major crash whenever the O2 WiFi software was tried. It would not let the software be deleted so that it could be reinstalled to clean up. This afternoon, however, it did allow it to be deleted and reinstalled – so far it seems to be working.

Arrived in Pwllheli marina late afternoon – it was very hot. A large number of small motor boats and speed boats were coming in to be pulled out of trailers and taken to the boat park all in a very efficient operation.

It is some years since I have been to Pwllheli, the last time was for a 420 National Championships and before that one or maybe two Optimist National Championships; the first of the Oppie events, when I organised the Regatta Fleet with a passing but abandoned plan to get the kids to sail to Bulletins for a swim, I remember being hot and windless. A walk along the beach used to launch the Oppies brought back the memories.

Dinner in the cockpit and then a pint in the Sailing Club and bunk.