Holyhead to Glasson to Liverpool....

Holyhead bridge.. 

The view from my cabin on Brown Eyes.

It had always been my intention to stop off at Glasson Basin Marina on the River Lune near Lancaster - I was planning to leave Brown Eyes there for a week whilst I caught up on my life, put in some training for my other challenges and did some other fund raising.  The only problem with this is that there is a very small time/tide window to get in there. The River Lune dries out at low tide so there are lock gates to maintain a certain water level in the marina and the adjoining dock.

Tanker dodging again.

The lock gates are open approximately one-and-a-quarter hours before high tide until high tide - so a 75 minute window!

This looked like a giant pawn from a chess set? Anyone any ideas what it is?

I had over 70 miles to cover from Holyhead to Glasson to get in before the gates closed at 3.08pm.  I missed that window by 30 minutes despite a 3am start - this time the tide was not kind to me and I had struggled to get past Anglesey in the earlier part of my journey.

The lock would not be opening again until the following afternoon.  I then had to make a decision on where to go and by now the wind had really picked up and so had the sea swell.

Having studied the charts before setting out I knew there were very few opportunities for picking up a buoy or anchoring; particularly with the on-shore wind and heavy swell.

I made the decision to go south again; to Liverpool.  With a force 7 now blowing I reefed in the sails (reduced their size) and set off.  Brown Eyes really did take a hammering as the swell increased, but she fought on well and we made it to the entrance channel to Liverpool.  The massive wind turbines were quite confusing as they didn’t appear on any of my charts, but they were mentioned in the yachting almanac so I knew which way to go.  

Special guest appearance by Blackpool Tower as Lighthouse of the day!

It took over an hour to wind my way into the main part of the Mersey and luckily I saw some bouys being used as small vessel moorings on the starboard side of the river and I managed to pick one up as the light faded.

The wind continued to blow through the night and the river was quite choppy which didn’t help me catch up on my sleep at all.