Small Dinghy On The Irish Sea - Over nighting in Aberffrau

My first sea adventure on Lulu, my Drascombe Lugger and this time i'm sailing solo!
This is part 2/3
After sailing down the Menai Strait, through the Abermenai channell and over the Caernarfon Sand Bar we sail in the open Irish sea, along the West coast of Anglesey.
We decide to beach the boats at Aberffrau where we stay the night, camping on the tidal river, behind the rocks.
It was a perfect day's sailing and a wonderful evening on the river.
Enjoy!
00:00 Intro
01:23 Sailing with the Simrad TP10
03:12 Weather front
04:51 How I use Savvy Navvy
08:17 Trying to find wind by Wing-On-Winging
11:08 AIS!!!
12:27 Catching up (again!!!)
16:06 Beaching the boats
20:52 Going for a swim
24:02 Exploring the coastline
27:15 On the hunt for beer!
28:50 Camping
29:23 Next time
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[@rhyspeary2499]

Great dinghy adventure!! So cool Dave.

[@SailingWithDave]

Thank you for the comment Rhys. Hopefully plenty more to come next season!!

[@Pali65]

I've been watching your oldest videos recently and I just have to say you evolved in quite some videographer and storyteller. Well done!

[@SailingWithDave]

Thankyou for that comment,very kind of you. I'm hoping to keep progressing in both.

[@joewilliams5396]

Fabulous video I really enjoyed it.

[@SailingWithDave]

Many thanks Joe, I think I will do a few more of these next season. People seem to like them!

[@phillotf]

Great video! Found it really inspiring! Well done 🎥🛥️💦🎯

[@SailingWithDave]

Many thanks. More to come!

[@ShoeProtestorGrrrr]

Great trip. Great video. Worry not about progress in light airs, because the Wanderer and Wayfarer are two quite nippy racing dinghys'.

[@SailingWithDave]

They certainly are!! I think as my own sea faring experience gains confidence, i'll be more happy to lag behind and turn up at camp a bit later!!

[@iansenior9759]

Outboard and Centreplate raised. Lift rudder. Beach stern first.

[@glenpollard6101]

For light air sailing you may want to consider adding a couple of short battens on the mail to help with sail shape

[@SailingWithDave]

Hi Glen. I'm hopefully getting a new mainsail and Mizzen next month and I have been in great discussion over the "Batten Roached Mainsail" that R&J sails make for the Lugger. I show another Lugger using it in a few videos on the Lake. In te end it was decided that the sail was probably not a great idea on the sea. Someone who has it says it makes the sail a serious issue getting it stowed away and certainly will not rollup and tie to the mast any more, which is a big feature of the Lugger sails. He also said he spends most of his time reefing the blummin thing now!!! If I were only lake sailing or always had a rib close by I would have gone for that sail, however I think for cruising I decided against it.

[@mutley192]

great vid as always , i see what u mean about the main needing a boom and the jib boom looked to work very well, on my to do list i think

[@SailingWithDave]

Hi Mate, cheers for the comment. You basically need 3 poles on the Lugger in my view. 1. Jib stick - always needed for running 2. Mizzen boom - I use my spinnaker pole which is perfect and great at keeping the sail flat when running. 3. Boom - This has without doubt made a huge difference to the boat and I can't wait to test some more with it. I have removated my boom ready for the new season so it's going to be a permanent fixture I think, unless sailign under Jib and Mizzen!

[@mutley192]

@@SailingWithDave cant wait to see it

[@knucker4931]

Now then Dave, that's what it's all about, well done! Best wishes Al

[@SailingWithDave]

Oh yes without a doubt. Tasting the sea definitely feeds the adventuring appetite!

[@beorbeorian150]

Set some oars up. Good exercise, keep you moving.

[@SailingWithDave]

Yes indeed. The 2 reason I don't have them onboard here are that they take up a loit of space, or at least I thought they did until someone else told me how to slot them in properly!!! The other reason is that until recently I actually didn't know how to row the Lugger properly. Rudder down and fixed, centreboard up and she rows like an 8 man boat from Cambridge!!! Spoiler alert here but this winter I have been able to convert my Jib stick into paddle extensions so I can use my packraft paddles as oars. I got them floating too just in case they go overboard. I have to test them though as the aluminium tube needs to withstand the pressure of the oar against the water but if it works then I will always have oars onboard!

[@beorbeorian150]

@@SailingWithDave nice. My dinghy is about 16 foot (Oday Ospray 1965) I set up with 10 foot oars. I think you have a much bigger boat. I am just starting out with this new hobby so really love watching you on your adventures. Thank you!

[@SailingWithDave]

@@beorbeorian150 Nice boat, I think there's a channel with that boat that I watch, not sure.... The LUgger has 8.5foot oars. Originally I thought they were a little short but I confirmed thats the right length. I do have wooden oars, I just don;t tent to carry them!! Good luck with the boat and let me know how it goes.

[@beorbeorian150]

@@SailingWithDave amazingly enough there are two KZbinrs now with the same boat. About 550 of them made. Nobody is sure why they were made since the daysailer was so popular. Why make a boat two inches shorter with much less sail and a keel stepped mast that is painful to set up. I don’t know the answer but I am happy to have one.

[@anotherangleUK]

Nice to have the AIS on the handheld. Lucky with the weather - maybe a little more wind would have been handy.

[@SailingWithDave]

Yes it is somewhat of a conundrum with the LUgger. Very safe, very stable but we do get whipped by the other 2 boats. If you sneeze then that Wander leaps up to 5kts!!! The AIS was useful but I need to set it so that it's a bit closer maybe. Otherwise I wa sgetting alarms from things I couldn't even see!!! Would be handy to spot the ferries early though going around Holyhead.

[@anotherangleUK]

@@SailingWithDave Probably better to get an alarm alert in good time in case something is approaching very close and fast. Does it not give an alarm when both vessels are on a collision course rather than a proximity?

[@SailingWithDave]

Not sure actually, I need to have a good look at that. I have forgotten how to use the VHF and always have to spend 30 minutes on my VHF handbook and the manual before I go on the sea again!!!. @@anotherangleUK

[@fat_tommo_goes_boating]

I tend to turn the AIS off on my chart plotter, out in the Solent it's going off almost every minute and is a real pain. I know that's the point of it though 😅

[@anotherangleUK]

@@fat_tommo_goes_boating But when you're doing you sedate 50 knts we want to have an early warning of your arrival 😂😂😂

[@fat_tommo_goes_boating]

Lovely place and great video Dave. However I can't help think you are doing an M&S advert when you use your soft voice on the narration 😂

[@SailingWithDave]

Haha more like Aldi for me!. Well I tried the "normal" one and it sounded awful so used some good microphone settings to give me a little bit of Je ne sais quoi!

[@fat_tommo_goes_boating]

@@SailingWithDave it's perfect.... "this is not just any lugger sailing, this is sailing with Dave lugger sailing"

[@stevenboon9829]

Another great video Dave, what month is it in the vid?

[@SailingWithDave]

Hi Steven. Many thanks for the comment. It was middle of June, very nice weather, although no wind!!

[@stevenboon9829]

@@SailingWithDave looked great Dave, going to spend some time around there this summer myself. Looking forward to your 3rd episode. 👍🏻

[@SailingWithDave]

@@stevenboon9829 What do you sail Steven? I would highly recommend the waters around Anglesey. It's a lovey place to sail. You have to be careful of certain areas (See my next series coming up soon) but as long as you get your timing/weather right you're fine. We're going for a circumnavigation this year so hopefully that will work out right and also hoping to go south around Bardsey too, although that can be lairy so i'm told!

[@stevenboon9829]

@@SailingWithDave im more of an armchair sailor Dave. 😂😂 absolutely fascinated with all types of sailing and its something im saving towards buying my own boat. Probably some type of family cruiser. Ive done abit around anglesey on my old fishing boat so i know how bad places can be. I think it was Nelson who said “if you can sail the Menai strait you can sail anywhere” treacherous stretch of water.

[@SailingWithDave]

@@stevenboon9829 He certainly did! When you look at the charts you can see why. Races along most of the coastline, Puffin sound is tasty with wind over tide, Point Lynas can have huge waves in the wrong weather and we haven't even mentioned the Caernafon sand bar and the Swellies yet!!! All within about 75miles of water!! I'm with you on boats. I think they all have their charm The Lugger can be a bit slow in lighter airs so maybe something a bit faster is in my future at some point!.

[@neleabels]

“Aberfrau” means “but, woman!” In German.🥴

[@SailingWithDave]

Haha, you will have to speak to the Welsh about that!! ;-)