The weather gods needed a breather and backed off the accelerator for half a day and we’ve scooted south with just fifteen to twenty knots of breeze on the nose. Early afternoon had us off Holyhead Harbor in Wales. Conditions were favorable to continue, but when we looked the Anglesey area up in the guidebook the words “Roman era fort” caught our eye.

Holyhead is protected by the largest breakwater in Europe, a huge mid-19th century structure, 2.4 km long which took 29 years to construct. There is a crowded mooring field, room to anchor (that’s us in the background) and a nice marina.

And the harbor is busy!

There are two dinghy clubs conducting summer youth training, classic sailing vessels, and yachts coming and going.

It is breezy, but that does not seem to bother the kids. This young lady has just been hit by a puff and we could easily hear her comment on the conditions from a distance.

Capsize recovery is obviously a part of the curriculum.

Speaking of training, a chopper and what we think is a Coast Guard vessel are doing swimmer recovery.

Check out the guy hanging from the sling.

This unpainted aluminum cat caught our eye. Speaking of aluminum, Holyhead was the launching place for the first aluminum yacht built in the UK. She was a Laurent Giles ketch of about 70 feet and almost 60 years later she is still in service.

The big draw for us was the Roman fort in town (we’ve grown jaded to anything more recent than the 13th century). The Italians arrived in AD 61 to deal with the reactionary Druids, and decided to hang out and protect the area from Irish raiders, hence the fort.

The Romans left after four centuries and eventually the Catholics built the church of St. Cybi’s within the walls of the fort. The original structure was started in the early thirteen century. Then came Henry #8 and his financial (or maybe wife) problems and the Catholic churches were taken over by the state. Next came Oliver Cromwell who wanted his own system. More recently the Church of Wales, and offshoot of the Anglican church, is the tenant.

St. Cybi’s is not the fanciest, or even very large, but it has a nice feel and some great ideas for the design of your final resting place.

This fire safety blanket, next to the votive candles caught our eye. You do have a fire safety blanket for your galley don’t you?

Downtown Holyhead is not tourist oriented, which is cool with us. There is a liberal and conservative club, neither of which we identify with. But we could not help noticing the dude in suit, standing in the doorway.

Would you trust him with your tax dollars?

In Wales both Welsh and English are spoken.

The signs are all done in both languages.

And if you’ve got a hankering for a bit of gambling you can bet on the horses, sporting events, or the next election.

Need to know what time it is? If the sun is shining (a big if) this will tell you,

Hurricane Bill is due in tomorrow, much diminished from the forecast of a few days ago, but still gale force. We are thinking after it passes the breeze will swing from the south more to the west, in which case we are off to Lands End and Falmouth.