Photo: Conway Castle

Nineteen hours on the Irish Sea (from 10:30 am on June 3 to 05:30 0n June 4) took us another 128 miles closer to Scotland, and landed us in magnificent North Wales. The passage was smooth throughout, but provided little opportunity for sailing. Winds were generally light, and when they built at all they came right on the nose. With just two on board, and some very low temperatures through the night hours, we alternated watches at two hour intervals while we powered on, leaving most of the steering to the autopilot.

This leg of the trip ended at a very fine marina in Holyhead. After catching up on a few hours of sleep we took a short train ride to Conwy, a walled town with a magnificent castle on the water's edge -- one of three imposing castles that Edward I built in the immediate area in the 1280's. The castle's eight towers (we know, because we climbed them all) provide great views of mountains inland and the harbor at its feet. The castle, the wall, and the town, are all beautifully preserved.

We have seen no other US boats in Wales, and flying the stars and stripes has attracted attention of the nicest kind. A member of the Holyhead Sailing Club, a short walk from the Marina, came by to ask about our voyage and invite us to use the Club's facilities. We availed ourselves of the Club's hospitality, including its fine dining room. Other sailors have stopped by to give us the benefit of their local knowledge, including favorite anchoring spots on the Scottish coast. Sometimes, the fact that we are a rarity in these waters has been brought home in humorous ways, as when we called a rigger who we asked to do a bit of work and could hear the person who picked up the phone call out "Denzel, its the American." That's all the ID we seem to need. (To members of the World War II generation we're the Yanks.)

At both of our stops in Wales (Milford Haven and Holyhead) the boating community has been exceptionally warm and helpful, even by the high standards that we have encountered in most of the UK and Irish harbors that we have enetered.