Port St Mary to Port Dinorwic

We planned to leave Port St Mary once the tide turned for a port on the Northern edge of Anglesey and the wind was ideal for a sail, so we made steady progress away from the Isle Of Man.

The wind lightened and we slowed, but both of us felt reluctant to start the engine, and in the end we realised that we were going to arrive at Anglesey in the dark, so we might as well head directly for the NE entrance to the Menai Straight. The wind increased, together with the swell and as the tide turned, we were bashing into the waves in the dark - all very unpleasant. Eventually we began to come into the shelter of Red Wharf Bay and dropped anchor in the dark for a couple of hours before the tide turned again into the Menai. It was now 02:00 in the morning.

After a cup of tea and some chocolate, there was a little daylight in the sky, and within 30 minutes it was a grey drizzly dawn. Yeuch.


Passage down the Menai was a mixture of challenging pilotaqe and uneventful sailing , but a terrific experience.


We caught the swellies at slack tide and so the passage was very smooth, and found our way to Port Dinorwic at high tide when the lock opens.

We locked in, rafted up next to a very noisy road bridge and got a few hours sleep.