#MAN OVERBOARD – At 02.29 am, Holyhead coastguard received a call from a fishing vessel to report one of their crew missing, he had been last seen onboard 1.2 miles west of South Stack on the Irish Sea.

A mayday relay was broadcast by Holyhead Coastguard to alert other vessels in the area and RNLI lifeboats were requested to launch from Holyhead, Porthdinllaen,  and Trearddur. A rescue helicopter was also scrambled from RAF Valley. Other fishing vessels in the area are also assisting in the search.

The fishing vessel had departed Holyhead at 11.25 pm and the crewman was last seen at 00.45 am, the vessel alerted Holyhead after finding the man missing at 02.29 am.

Holyhead Coastguard has coordinated the fishing vessels, lifeboats and helicopter in a search in Caernarfon Bay covering an area of fifty square miles.

Jim Green, Watch Manager, Holyhead Coastguard said:

Every effort has been made to try and locate this missing crewman.

The weather in the area is North Westerly F4 with a calm sea and slight swell, the water temperature is eight degrees.

The Coastguard say he was not wearing a lifejacket.

#WEATHER - Ireland has been warned to brace for further strong winds set to sweep across the country today (4 January),

The Irish Times reports. Winds reaching near hurricane speeds have affected coastal communities in the north and northwest, peaking at a remarkable 168km/h in Donegal.

Thousands of euro worth of damage was caused when the roofs of traditional thatched cottages at Cruit Island in west Donegal were blown away.

But the west and east have also been hard hit, with storm-force gales exceeding 100km/h uprooting trees and disrupting electricity supply.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, ferry services on the east coast have been severely affected. Irish Ferries cancelled two fast ferries from Dublin to Holyhead yesterday, and today's early Jonathan Swift sailings between Dublin and Holyhead were also cancelled.

Met Éireann expects wind speeds to be lower today, but could still reach 90-120km/h in some areas.

The Irish Times has much more on the story HERE.

He had been found lying in a muddy ditch in 10 inches of water by a man and his dog. Jumping in to hold his head above the rising water his rescuer managed to attract the attention of some builders working nearby. They called the ambulance, who alerted Holyhead Coastguard.

The RAF Rescue helicopter from Valley was sent to the scene with Criccieth Coastguard Rescue Team and paramedics. The man was rescued from the ditch and taken to hospital by helicopter.

Holyhead Coastguard Watch Manager Barry Priddis said:
"This gentleman was really lucky to be found as the tide was coming in and he would soon have been beneath the water. If I was him I'd buy a lottery ticket tonight."

The third service between Belfast-Stranraer is in the hands of rivals Stena Line which maintain the HSS Stena Voyager (1996/19,638 grt) on sailings but only to around mid-November. She will be replaced by conventional sister-ships which will be introduced on the North Channel's newest port when services switch from Stranraer to a new terminal close to Cairnryan.

Finally the fourth fast-ferry is Irish Ferries marketed 'Dublin Swift' service which runs on the Dublin-Holyhead route served by Jonathan Swift (1999/5,989 grt). The craft built by Austal in Fremantle, operates alongside the conventional cruise-ferry Ulysses.

Stena Line's decision to terminate HSS Stena Explorer sailings between Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead this day last week follows fast-ferry Stena Lynx III's end-of-season Rosslare-Fishguard sailings earlier this month.

From next year, Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead sailings are to be seasonal-only and according to Stena Line they hope to resume fast-ferry sailings in April or May though no exact date has been set. Unlike the central corridor route which was entirely dependent on HSS operations, the Rosslare-Fishguard route remains operating year-round with the conventional ferry Stena Europe.

As a result of the discontinued fast-ferries, the HSS Stena Explorer is now spending a lay-up period in the Welsh port for the winter. The smaller Stena Lynx III is also 'wintering' but in on the opposite side of the Irish Sea in Dun Laoghaire, where the vessel has done so in previous years.

The lay-up of both fast-ferries in Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead is ironic considering that neither ports' are connected by the very craft that used to share sailing rosters in recent years. In addition the wintering of these catamaran craft is the first time that this has occurred since the pioneering Stena Sea Lynx fast-ferry launched such sailings in 1993.

This first 'Lynx' provided seasonal sailings on the route with conventional car-ferry Stena Hibernia, the former St. Columba, custom-built in 1977 for Sealink /British Rail. She was given a second name under Stena ownership, the Stena Adventurer and remained on the 57 nautical-mile route until replaced in 1996 by the year-round operated HSS Stena Explorer.

Apart from cross-channel fast-ferry services, the Isle of Man is served by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. Ltd's routes linking the islands capital Douglas with Belfast, Dublin, Heysham and Liverpool (Birkenhead) in the winter. These routes include seasonal services which are operated by a combination of conventional tonnage using Ben-My-Chree and fast-ferry Manannan (1998/5,089grt), a former US Navy vessel, to read more click HERE. For sailing schedules, vessel type deployed on route and for fares click HERE.

Storm force winds are expected across the country later on this evening and into tomorrow.

Met Éireann has warned of gale to storm force winds tonight with speeds of up to 130km/h, strongest in the northwest.

Extremely high waves are expected on southwest, west and north coasts.

Irish Ferries has cancelled a number of its Swift sailings between Dublin and Holyhead because of forecasts for the Irish Sea.

P&O's scheduled sailings between Larne and Cairnryan this afternoon have been cancelled, as have this evening's sailings between Larne and Troon.

Tonight's departure is for Holyhead, where the call to Anglesey also covers tours of Snowdonia, the impressive castles of Conwy, Caernarvon and Harlech and a stop to Bodnant. Following the Welsh call she is to visit Cobh. Other calls are to Bordeaux (overnight), Bibao, Gijon,Vigo and the final port of call is Lisbon on 7 September where passengers will remain in their cabins for an overnight stay. The next day there is a scheduled tour of the Gulbenkian Museum, the Jeronimos Monastery and Sintra.

On one-day the ship will spend the entire day at sea which will enable passengers to indulge further of the facilities such as the casino and entertainment in the theatre, for more click HERE. Fares for the Irish passengers of the 10-day cruise/11-day holiday started at €2,062 per person (cruise-only) based on the lowest grade twin cabin. After completion of the cruise in Lisbon they will take a flight to return to Dublin.

Azamara Journey formed part of the eight-strong series commissioned for Renaissance Cruises which collapsed a decade ago. They were built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in St.Nazaire and were uninspiringly named as R One, R Two etc with the R Six now the re-named Azamara Journey.

As August and the high-season draws to a close that doesn't' stop the cruiseships calling as over twenty more are due in Dublin before the season closes. In total the port this year has handled some 90 cruiseships and 160,000 passengers. A further 65 callers so far are scheduled for 2012.

A former mayor of Holyhead has sung the praises of Holyhead's coastguard station to Afloat.ie.

Commenting on our recent report on plans to close Liverpool's coastguard station, Cllr KR Roberts said it was "a victory for people power" that Holyhead in north Wales joins Bangor in Northern Ireland among those stations reprieved under revised proposals for the streamlining of Britain's coastguard network.

"Holyhead Coastguard covers a vast area of the Irish Sea in close proximity to the Irish coast, where it joins forces with their Irish Coast Guard colleagues to provide a service of maritime safety to both commercial vessels and leisure craft alike," said Cllr Roberts.

"Holyhead Coastguard also provide maritime safety cover to over 300 miles of Welsh coastline that welcomes a vast variety of leisure craft from Ireland.

"As a past mayor and local councillor in Holyhead I am proud to promote the long traditions of maritime connections between Wales and Ireland. However I am sorry to see the loss of any coastguard station - in this case Liverpool Coastguard, which provides maritime safety cover to the northwest coast of England and the Scottish borders around the Solway Firth."

Cllr Roberts added that these areas would be taken over by Holyhead "with resilient support from Belfast and Milford Haven Coastguards".

A 'tough opener' is how Commodore Peter Ryan has described the first ISORA offshore sailing race of the season from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire yesterday. Inspite of the difficult conditions though there was little change at the top of the leader board. Skerries domination of Irish Sea racing continues with the Sigma 400 Raging Bull maintaining his winning form.  It was a very hard race with usual flukey conditions trying to leave Dublin Bay at 8am on Saturday morning (Afloat.ie followed the fleet out of the bay on twitter). Strong winds followed for the beat to the M2 buoy before another long leg and a short beat to Holyhead. The sea conditions on the 60-mile course were trying for many crew who were out for the first time this season.

ISORA has formed three classes this season, the aim is to give better competitive sailing between similar boats. First race results below.

In January 2000 the keel of the worlds largest car ferry was laid at the Aker Finnyards in Rauma, Finland. The following year the €100m cruiseferry giant departed the shipyard on a four-day delivery voyage to Dublin Port. Upon Ulysses's arrival on 4th March she was presented with a traditional welcoming escort of saluting water-firing tugs.

The Ulysses was named at a ceremony in the port on 21st March by the 'golden godmother' Mairead Berry, Ireland's 25-year old Paralympic Games gold medallist. Four days later Ulysses made her commercial maiden voyage to Holyhead on 25th March.

Wih 12 decks the vessel has an extensive range of facilities and they are named with themes derived from James Joyce's famous novel 'Ulysses'. There is seating available for up to 1,938 passengers and there are 117 twin or single-cabins, accommodating up to 228 passengers.

Only two months into service the Ulysses won the prestigious 'Most Significant New Build - Ferry' category award in the Cruise & Ferry magazine 2001 Awards competition. Her Finnish builders are not only builders of large cruise-ferries for Baltic Sea operators and beyond but also are also renowned for the construction of very large cruiseships for international clients.

Ulysses was designed specifically to serve the central corridor route with a schedule of two round trips daily. She directly replaced the 1997 Dutch built 34,031 grt ro-pax Isle of Inishmore, which transferred to Rosslare-Pembroke Dock service.

In 2006 the Ulysses alongside her fleetmates were transferred from the Irish flag to the Cypriot flag in addition to a change of Irish crew with those outsourced from citizens mostly from the Baltic and Eastern European countries.

Due to the sheer size of the Ulysses, which has a length of 209m, a beam of nearly 32m and a 6.4m draught, she has not missed a single crossing due to bad weather conditions. The vessel has a 22 knot / 41kph service -speed on the 60-mile route which translates to a distance of over 182,000 kms a year.

To celebrate Ulysses 10th year in service, Irish Ferries has enhanced the Club Class option to passengers which includes free-Wifi, which enables a constant connection and an array of other benefits during the 3-hour 15 minute crossing.

For a virtual tour of the Ulysses with views taken from the top deck as the cruiseferry departs Holyhead and the mountains of Snowdonia setting as a backdrop plus interior tours of the vessel click here.