Anglesey adventure

Sam Griffiths and his dad go dinghy sailing in the challenging waters of North Wales

- Sam Griffiths

As a child I’d been much taken by my dad, Lloyd’s, write up of his ‘Boy’s Own’ style adventure in a GP14. In 1963, he and another teenage friend circumnavigated Anglesey anticlockwise and would often fondly recall the trip. Nearly 60 years on, it seemed like a great idea to repeat the process.

Anglesey is separated from the northwest corner of Wales by a thin slice of water called the Menai Strait – a stretch of tidal water about 15 miles long. The tidal effects of the Strait are highly unusual and caused by the odd topography of the region. Admiral Nelson himself is reputed to have said: ‘If a sailor can sail a ship through the Menai Strait, he can sail it anywhere in the world.’

This did little to quell a certain anxiety we had about the cruise. For one, the weather looked unsettled and there was also the fact that our dinghy was completely new to us! I’d sold my Welsford Houdini just before lockdown one in exchange for the beautiful Ynyslas, a 16-foot Shetland skiff I’d found on the internet, lurking behind a sea wall near Southport.

She’d needed some lockdown TLC, but her hull was very sound, and she benefitted from a new suit of fresh white sails. A little trip up the Severn from home in Shrewsbury last summer had provided us with a chance to iron out any issues, such as a wobbly rudder, but this circumnavigation was clearly going to be a bigger test of her seaworthiness.

Dark skies and reefed sails

We set off from Holyhead mid-afternoon, having carefully loaded