Puffin Island Seal Spotting

The Puffin Island trip was scheduled to take place on Saturday the 31st of March but as the forecast was poor we rescheduled it for Sunday the 1st of April.  In contrast to the Saturday the weather on Sunday was dry with light easterly winds but spectacularly cold.  I believe there was actually a frost in the marina early in the morning.  2 boats braved the cold leaving Conwy to go on the trip – Myself Lorraine and Austin on Free Will and Trevor and Sue Wilson on Annica.  Meanwhile Steve and Yvonne Wade and their family left Caernarfon to rejoin us in Conwy after a winter in Victoria Dock.  On Free Will we took it as an opportunity to try out all the equipment.  The autohelm initially took us in circles but when we moved the electric dinghy pump out of the bulkhead locker to a locker further away from the autohelms’ compass, order was restored.  We then took advantage of the easterly winds and raised the Spinnaker in full view of the CYC boats who were having a race around the bay.  Although a bit rusty in our setting up we raised it the right way up and spared our blushes.  We then had a good sail all the way to Puffin Island where we met the Bay of Colwyn boats returning to Rhos after a weekend in Menai Bridge.

All in all it was a good trip out and we returned to the mooring closely followed by Steve and Yvonne Wade on Split Decision.

The winning boat with some splendid seal pictures was Split Decision and I’d like to welcome them back to Conwy.

It was a bit disappointing not to see more club boats out but given that it was a very early Easter and many club boats were still ashore it was understandable.  Hopefully there will be a bigger turnout for the next event.

Steve Gorst, Sailing Captain