Delivery crew reach Holyhead

4pm on Wednesday the delivery crew tied up in Holyhead marina.
Sea Fever has sailed beautifully and we have had some superb spinnaker runs South from Scotland. The first day we arrived at Crinan at 5pm, loaded on the stores and kit and locked out of the Crinan canal by 7pm. Virginia and David had bought provisions and prepared a fantastic fish pie. We sailed down to Lowlandmans bay and anchored for the night in sight of the Paps of Jura. 6 am we weighed anchor and set off South. The tide at the Mull of Kintyre was still favourable so we squeaked past and climbed up into the Firth of Clyde to keep out of the adverse current. Evening saw us hoisting the spinnaker at Black Head and running past Portpatrick down the Rhins of Galloway. We anchored just east of the Mull in East Tarbert Bay and had a quiet night after an 85 mile trip (Chilli with rice!)
The next day was an easy 35 mile run across to The Isle of Man, a brief gasp of excitement in Calf Sound against the tide and another quiet evening in Port St Mary. Virginia went for a run on Man while the rest of the crew loafed. (Pasta with sausages!)
The boat now has its name on the transom and various jobs have been done to prepare. The jelly babies have had to be put on ration as the quarter master is worried about the supplies lasting.
Wednesdays run was 54 miles down to Holyhead and again we put up the spinnaker and had a very pleasant run until the wind died. Motoring into some severe tide we arrived at Holyhead on time to buy spare bulbs and sail ties and organise David and Chris into a bed and breakfast. The boat leaves at 2am so they wisely opted for beds that would stay put.
Patrick has just joined ship at 6.45pm and Andrew is on a slow train that gets in at 9pm. We will have a feast for supper thanks to our excellent cooks and get some sleep before departing at 2am to catch the high water at Barmouth harbour entrance tomorrow. The boat is in excellent order the crew are cheerful and bonding well and we are looking forward to catching up with Bill and Bridget in Kithros 2 who arrived in Barmouth today.
The other teams in Holyhead include Maracusa, Celtic Warrior the Isreli charter boat and another two we haven't met. They seem more laid back about departing for Barmouth but maybe they haven't tried the harbour entrance before.
Signing off to go and eat another feast from our cooks. Virginia says she doesnt like sailing or running in the dark but she is happy to cook for us. A price worth paying in my view!