Just a long way down to get the dinghy
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Very pretty and great ice-creams
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23/06/2012, Aberystwyth
Colin cleaning the engine
Weather bound sailors will do anything to entertain themselves after a couple of days.
A trip up the mountain to see a waterfall by steam train was yesterday's distraction.
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21/06/2012, West Wales
Aberystwyth seafront on a wild day. The marina is much more sheltered
Arrived after dark through the twisty entrance at high water, it was raining. Good to tie up to the fuel berth for a quiet night after motoring 85 miles and 16 hours from Milford Haven.
This year the weather has gone bonkers. Either no wind to sail or gales. Because we have had four gales so far we have seen a lot of the country. One of the reasons we choose to circumnavigate the UK was to get to know Britain better and there is no doubt that we are.
The marina is sheltered, the best we have experienced this year and in the centre of town. Taransay draws 1.8m, depth on the pontoon is nominally 1.7m.
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20/06/2012
I took a lot of pictures and this was the best puffin shot, at least it might be a puffin
Puffins breed on Skomer and we had wanted to visit the south anchorage to see them but time and tide don't allow for such luxuries as puffin spotting when you are trying to sail round Britain.
I got very excited when I saw just one puffin bobbing on the swirling waters of Broad Sound, after an hour we had seen a hundred of them. It seems that early morning the puffins are out fishing.
The first time we had seen puffins that were not part of a BBC documentary.
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19/06/2012, Milford Haven
Castlemartin Range boat diverts us 3 miles offshore
No one wants to mess with a live missile firing but those 3 miles added two hours to the trip and put the wind on the nose. In addition it was through an area of rough water we had wanted to avoid and we almost missed the tide to Milford Haven.
A very pleasant night on a free pontoon in Dale Bay followed
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Sailing on to the anchor at Caldey Island
Looks idyllic? The sun shone on golden sands when we went for a walk ashore that afternoon but at dusk thunderclouds darkened the sky. The wind got up and started to send a really uncomfortable swell in to the bay that lasted all night. Caldey is owned by the Cistercian monks who live here and we did wonder if the weather had anything to do with the sign we saw after our walk on the Beach.
Take a look in the gallery to see why.
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15/06/2012
Concentrating hard on his compass course.
Penguin is becoming a valuable member of our crew
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15/06/2012
Enjoying a once in every 50 years weather pattern
Can you believe the weather, we can't, our third severe gale forecast in a six week period. This is supposed to be June!
Completing our Round Britain voyage feels a long way from being completed.
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15/06/2012
Taransay Mhor anchored off Lundy while we rest after a pub walk
Eventually Padstow and the weather allowed us to set sail for Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel. Stopping overnight here is very weather dependant, we were lucky and managed two nights at anchor in the hook created by Rat Island.
A step track winds straight up to a small hamlet where we found the island shop and Marisco Tavern but it was early and we had an island to explore. At 3.5 miles long and less than a mile wide there is enough room for summer visitors who stay in the National Trust cottages and a lot of livestock. Sheep, deer, ponies and goats were everywhere. The puffins live at the very furthest northern end and despite the perfect June day we didn't get that far.
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