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Porth Dinllaen
A beacon with two black ball topmark (top RH corner of photo) marks the entrance through minor overfalls to a 3m anchorage with many private moorings. Ashore, the Ty Coch public house has welcomed a lot of yotties from all directions whilst the beach is a great place for an evening party. After breaking out the walking boots here, keep them handy for landfall in Ynys Môn (Welsh for Anglesey). Across the bay is the village of Morfa Nefyn, with a shop and Post Office.

Caernarfon Bar and Abermenai
The bar moves every winter and, if you believe harbour master Richard Jones, every time he surveys it! He and his team work hard to maintain channel markings and the latest state of play can be found on the Caernarfon harbour web site (or by phone - 01286 672118). By nature bars are featureless and this one is no different. It’s best to make your first passage in daytime and to be prepared to be guided obscenely close to the wreck, the starboard hand sandbanks and Belan Point. Once committed to the Bar, (from about HW – 3) there is no turning back and once in the narrows at Belan you may find yourself travelling backwards as you are propelled faster than the following breeze! Full lock to port will sluice you into the Abermenai anchorage, a well loved BBQ centre, miles from anywhere and with no vehicular access.

Llanddwyn Island
Sheltered from the west through northeast, the Pilot’s Cove anchorage is a lovely place to don the walking boots again and walk along the pathways (do NOT stray onto the foliage - it's a nature reserve!). There are birds, flora & fauna to thrill the most enthusiastic nature lover and it’s all FREE. During Tudor times a church was built on the site of Dwynwen's original chapel. Besides the church ruins, there are also two crosses on the island, one of a Celtic design bearing the date of Dwynwen’s death (25 January 465), whilst the other dates from 1890. Llanddwyn only becomes an island at HW (big) springs, but nevertheless its only access is on foot. A favourite place for those who don’t want company from the land.

Rhoscolyn
Whilst there are a number of fair weather anchorages between Llanddwyn and Rhoscolyn, most benefit from local knowledge – and a day when RAF Valley is not flying training sorties. Rhoscolyn’s outlying rocks offer some protection from swell and wind and there is sufficient shelter close to the abandoned lifeboat house for some local sailors to have laid moorings. In the height of the holiday season a mobile food outlet can be seen on the beach, but otherwise it is pretty isolated. Approached from the south, you need to skirt around an awash rock about 3ca from the entrance, whilst from the north, Maen Piscar is carefully placed to remove the keels of yachts making too straight a course from Penrhyn Mawr to the Rhoscolyn beacons. The site of an ancient cloister lies near the village and is still distinguishable by the number of human bones found whenever the ground is turned over.

Holyhead
The way to Holyhead is blocked by an awe inspiring tidal gate – South Stack. And Rhoscolyn can be a good place to wait for the tide to turn. The local pilot shows 5kn of tide around the headland, but this is compounded by the confluence of no fewer than SEVEN tidal streams. Some interesting seas result, which are dangerous to even well found yachts in anything over F5 (wind over tide). The tide race and overfalls can extend up to seven miles from the Stack.

Holyhead is a harbour of refuge and is one of the very few places on the Island that it will cost you money to stay overnight – but only if you don’t anchor. Holyhead Sailing Club offers a (very) few Visitors’ moorings at under a tenner a night whilst Holyhead Marina offers a snug berth for … rather more! The Sailing Club moorings are serviced by a Club launch which takes all the hassle out of getting ashore to its Clubhouse restaurant.

Holyhead is the primary port for ferries to Eire. Ashore you can visit the Maritime Museum, Breakwater Country Park (a disused quarry with outdoor machinery exhibits) or one of any number of Arts Centres.

Skerries
A gloriously sheltered hideaway – in settled weather. From the anchorage you can hear the tide rushing by, and a scramble up the now disused lighthouse landing stage opens up panoramas from Lynas in the east to North Stack in the West. On a good day, you might catch a glimpse of the Isle of Man.

Heading east along the north coast
Newcomers to Anglesey can find that the passage inshore of West Mouse and Middle Mouse sets the heart thumping - everything seems very close (on both sides of the boat) and the tides can mean that your speed over the ground reaches 10+ knots. Carmel Head must be taken at low water slack. As the pilot says: “Heavy tide rips and overfalls mark the offlying shoals. Wind over tide puts up a confused and dangerous sea”. Once past the headland (50m off shore is good) the tide will start to pick up and you will be taken, quite safely, inshore of West Mouse with its triangular beacon, past Cemlyn and Cemaes and inshore of Middle Mouse towards Amlwch harbour and Lynas Point. If you sail straight through, by the time you reach Middle Mouse there will be a wondrous wake downstream of the islet and a bumpy patch over Lynas Bank as you near Amlwch Port.

Cemlyn
Yes – there’s a Nature reserve here too! This time it lies beyond a natural shingle bank at the root of the bay and is a SAC because it is Wales’ best example of a coastal lagoon. To get into the anchorage, you need to keep inshore of (unmarked) Victoria Bank and outshore of the Harry Furlong starboard hand buoy. From the anchorage close west of the entrance, you can see Wylfa Nuclear Power station.

Porth Wen
Start turning right as you pass Middle Mouse and quite soon Porth Wen opens up. Well protected from the west, this anchorage is another of Anglesey’s secret coves with no vehicular access. Most visitors take the dinghy ashore near the abandoned brickworks for a walk along the cliffs, a BBQ and an exploration of the works. Built around the turn of the 20th century, the Works are a magnet for children with beehive kilns and many hidden rooms. A place to be avoided if you are heavily into Health & Safety - to be enjoyed if you are normal and careful!

Amlwch harbour
Amlwch has had a chequered past. It was the world's most important exporter of metal and base for great ship-building in the 1800s shipping copper mined at one of the world’s biggest mines – Mynydd Parys. When mining was no longer viable, the port fell on hard times only to be resurrected in the 1970’s when an offshore oil terminal used the harbour as its maintenance base. Today it is largely occupied by small fishing vessels, but still proves a port of refuge, of hurricane hole capability, for any yachts caught off the north coast in bad weather.

Lynas Point/ Porth Eilean
Just west of Lynas Point, with its lighthouse and DGPS station, lies the quiet backwater of Porth Eilean. Most yachts hading to or from Holyhead and the Menai Strait tend to rocket past Porth Eilean on the full tide, but it is well worth a luncheon stop. The entrance is easy, the waters are clean and there’s a surprisingly substantial slipway in the SW corner.

Treath Dulas
The waters from Parys Mountain, well polluted with mineral wastes even today, enter the sea over an enclosed estuary at Dulas. South of the estuary lie Treath yr Ora, a popular swimming beach for campers near the huge caravan site and Traeth Lligwy. The whole bay is open to the east and the northern entrance, inshore of Ynys Dulas ( Dulas Island) shoals. It’s a short stay option on a sunny day, but most yachts will head a little further south to Moelfre.

Moelfe
The best anchorage on the island! The water is 3m deep, the bottom is thick mud and there’s a pub at the top of the beach, alongside a fast food stand. Steer outshore of Moelfre Island and turn southwest past Moelfre Lifeboat house. A bronze statue of Dic Evans, three times RNLI Gold medallist looks out over the bay from his place of honour near the Maritime Museum. You have to beware of an unmarked (except in the local pilot) sewer outfall in the most enticing part of the anchorage, and there are a few small craft moorings between the outfall and the old lifeboat house. But it an easy anchorage to settle into and, in prevailing westerly gales it can feel very snug as anchors merely dig more deeply into the mud.

Traeth Coch ( Red Wharf Bay)
Yet another place for wet sand sailing. But, though they cannot be seen on the photograph, the bay is full of drying moorings belonging to members of the Traeth Coch Sailing Club. Al lthe moorings are laid by individual boat owners, which means that their quality is variable and unpredictable. Occasionally Neap tides will not provide enough water for boats to get out, but the natives are very friendly and, if there is anybody in their Clubhouse will offer excellent advice. Bizarrely, there a row of shops and a pub on a quayside which is dry for most of the time, accessed down a tiny country lane. Full of character and, in the right weather, well worth a stop over – maybe borrowing a mooring from a Club member who is away cruising. Most summers, the club lays buoys to mark the (drying) channel to its moorings.

Puffin Island
There is an anchorage on Puffin Island, but landing on this delightful Nature Reserve is prohibited. The island got its name from the thousands of puffins which nested on the island, until (many years ago) some bright spark from one of Bangor University’s Ecology departments decided to see if introducing rats onto the island would have any effect on the birds! Predictably the rats ate all the eggs and then there are no more puffins. After this particular horse had fled, the conservation authorities bolted the stable door by banning all yachtsmen from the island. The seal colonies have thrived, however, and bird life is gradually returning - even the odd puffin. If you are lucky, you might even catch sight of a pod of dolphin.

There is also a safe anchorage west of Trwyn Du lighthouse to wait for the tide to turn in the Menai Strait. When it does, make sure you pass between the lighthouse and the red conical perch – everything else dries.

Menai Strait
The protected waters of the Menai Strait begin at Trwyn Du in the northeast and extend past Beaumaris, Bangor and Menai Bridge through the notorious Swellies to Port Dinorwic and Caernarfon. The entire length of the Anglesey shore north of the Menai Bridge is full of moorings; all are privately owned and are laid by moorings contractors. Thus their condition can range from pristine to ‘past it’. The tides are fierce, reaching 8+ knots and, because the tide enters the Strait from both ends, there are some interesting effects.

Beaumaris

Beaumaris – the Knightsbridge of Anglesey, with more pubs and bistros than there are corners to site them on. It has an historic gaol, a castle and numerous antique and craft shoppes (sic). At the NE end of the drying bay and within the town confines, lies the Royal Anglesey Yacht Club. Very well heeled and possessing its own bar steward and launch for the dinghy fleet. At the other extreme is the North West Venturers Yacht Club at Gallows Point (my club), much more into DIY bacon sandwiches and dragging dinghies across the mud. Both friendly, but cruising visitors need the NWVYC if they wish to borrow a mooring. The few deep water moorings get quite agitated in easterlies but need F6 or better to make a dinghy trip dangerous in southwesterlies. Beaumaris ILB is based at the root of a recently refurbished pier with amazing views over the Snowdonia range of mountains.

Way back in the 1990’s the boatyard at Gallows Point submitted plans for a marina. Its progress (or lack of it) will one day provide a case study in manipulative politics by assorted objectors.

Bangor

Very few people go to Bangor by water, unless they need Dickies repair facilities. Hirael Bay dries, as does the small harbour of Penrhyn which serves as the base for mussel fishing boats. The owners of these vessels form a large part of the ongoing objection to Beaumaris Marina. Dickies, on the opposite side of Hirael Bay, submitted plans for a marina in the 1980’s. They don’t seem to have the perseverance of their colleagues in Beaumaris!

But Dickies does have a red diesel pump.

Menai Bridge

Not quite as many pubs as Beaumaris – but close! The pier is the preserve of the “Prince Madog”, Bangor University’s Ocean Science’s £3,5M ocean going research ship. It’s a fine place to secure to (either the pier or the Madog), but the skipper has threatened to lie outside any yachts berthed at the pier when he comes home from a week in the Atlantic. It’s best to ask the Piermaster first. The entire stretch from Beaumaris to Menai Bridge is beautiful, with three lines of private mooring buoys throughout from which the scenery may be enjoyed. There is bound to be one free for a careful visitor and most owners have no objection to sensible use. If you want to go ashore, work out the tides and decide if the owners can get back to the mooring from either Puffin Sound or the Swellies before you pump up the dinghy. Naturally there is never a charge.

Swellies

All sorts of fearsome stories are told of this fearsome stretch of water between Menai Bridge and Britannia Bridge. None are true if you go through at the correct time – which is 2 hrs BEFORE HW Liverpool (heading from Menai Bridge) or 1½ hrs BEFORE HW Liverpool (heading towards Menai Bridge). You should also follow the pilot directions very carefully, passing close to Swelly Rock, then close to the mainland shore after passing Price Point. At this time a F10 from the wrong direction is needed to create any sort of sea between the bridges. At the wrong time of the tide, ALL the fearsome stories are only too true!

Port Dinorwic (Y Felinheli)

After negotiating the Swellies, stopping places transfer from the Anglesey shore to the mainland. Port Dinorwic Marina is entered via a lock of the canal variety. The marina has been created from the old Slate Dock and boats lie alongside the dock wall. It, like Amlwch, is a hurricane hole; made even more so by the infestation of apartment buildings on all available dry land. It has its own bistro and overhanging trees.

The entrance dries but it will be around HW when any boats arrive from the Swellies. Dawdlers, or those from Caernarfon, may need to pick up a mooring (not private, but controlled by Caernarfon Harbour Commissioners). These are not free if you are spotted by one of their launch patrols. Alternatively, the marina operates a “ Tidal Basin” with a few pontoon berths and very little water at LW Springs.

Caernarfon

Victoria Dock is entered over a modern lifting cill, with the visitors’ pontoon hard a’starboard. You have to be alert because a strong tide across the entrance encourages a fast entry, which must be instantly cancelled in order to get to the Visitors' pontoon. Alternatively, you can leave King Edward’s outstanding castle to port (yes – the channel IS that close to the wall!) and enter the river through the Swing Bridge. This is kept open to river traffic at night and responds to a blast on the fog horn at other times. The Afon (River) Seiont dries to a trickle and most visitors will dry out alongside the old harbour wall (now a car park). The Royal Welsh Yacht Club has a clubhouse within the town walls and is as welcoming to visitors as all the other clubs Around Anglesey.