Aberdovey
Aberdovey marked a big change in the geography and the start of some very sandy "river fed" harbours in the shadow of Snowdonia.
Will Stockford the Aberdovey HM was so worried about us sailing into his harbour in the rough weather he had postponed the servicing of the lifeboat! In the event we travelled to the town by land. We are now in the county of Gwynedd, whose council manage the next few harbours. Sand is the overriding feature of Aberdovey and Will had sent us a very detailed sketch map of the entrance where he has to move the buoys regularly as the sand shifts. The mountain rivers dominate the flow of water running through the harbour and in old times the boys of the town were not allowed out in a boat until they had completed a row up the estuary AGAINST the ebbing tide. This they achieved by catching the back eddies that occur, thus allowing them to row "against" the current and demonstrate their local knowledge.
One of Will's strangest incidences occurred when he saw two planes land on his sand spit at low tide. When he went out to investigate he found they were a Dutch man and German doing a circumnavigation of GB by microlite.... dressed up in WW1 outfits! He then took this great video of them taking off! We really enjoyed our visit to the town, with its Mythical clanging bell and finding out about the home of Celtic Longboat racing. We even managed to take some local friends Bart and Gus out for a sail past their home port! Thank you Will.
Will Stockford the Aberdovey HM was so worried about us sailing into his harbour in the rough weather he had postponed the servicing of the lifeboat! In the event we travelled to the town by land. We are now in the county of Gwynedd, whose council manage the next few harbours. Sand is the overriding feature of Aberdovey and Will had sent us a very detailed sketch map of the entrance where he has to move the buoys regularly as the sand shifts. The mountain rivers dominate the flow of water running through the harbour and in old times the boys of the town were not allowed out in a boat until they had completed a row up the estuary AGAINST the ebbing tide. This they achieved by catching the back eddies that occur, thus allowing them to row "against" the current and demonstrate their local knowledge.
One of Will's strangest incidences occurred when he saw two planes land on his sand spit at low tide. When he went out to investigate he found they were a Dutch man and German doing a circumnavigation of GB by microlite.... dressed up in WW1 outfits! He then took this great video of them taking off! We really enjoyed our visit to the town, with its Mythical clanging bell and finding out about the home of Celtic Longboat racing. We even managed to take some local friends Bart and Gus out for a sail past their home port! Thank you Will.