We made it to Wales! We are here in Neyland Marina in Milford Haven for several days as bad weather and very strong winds, in the wrong direction, are forecast until next week.
We set off from Dun Laoghaire on Saturday early afternoon when the wind eased, heading south towards Arklow. The sea was still quite lumpy but the sky was clear and the wind light, in fact so light we sailed for half an hour or so then had to motor sail to keep up a sensible speed. About three hours into the journey we decided that the conditions were about as kind as we could get for the Irish Sea so we did some quick passage planning, saw that the tides worked out OK, and decided to keep heading south and go directly to Milford Haven, not stopping at Arklow. We are glad we did, as we are now safely tucked up the “right” side of the Irish Sea and Arklow is not a great place for an extended stay anyway.
Our decision to keep going was greeted by dolphins playing in the bow wave. Night fell and, with no light pollution, thousands of stars came out. We were very lucky in that Saturday was the peak of the Perseids meteor shower. We were treated to lots of shooting stars all through the night. After a couple of hours of darkness a huge orange half moon appeared over the horizon. The sea was still bumpy for the entire crossing, and kicked up quite a bit off the Bishops and Clerks islands off the Welsh coast. M&N had some hot food and kept going on hot drinks and snacks through the night. They had a casual watch system so they could both get some rest, but they didn’t sleep. They were joined on watch a few times during the night by more dolphins alongside. Good company! The sun rose in the right place! We passed the bird colony islands of Skomer and Grasholm and went up the Milford Haven estuary to the marina at Neyland where we stayed on the journey north two years ago. It was a long (21 hr) and tiring passage but spectacular and worthwhile to get across the Irish Sea before the bad weather arrived.
As we are here for a few days M&N hired a car for 3 days. They took advantage of a warm sunny day and drove to Stackpole Quay, then walked over the headland to the beautiful Barafundle Bay. It is a lovely bay with no access by road, and was recently ranked by Conde Nast and the Daily Telegraph as one of the top 10 beaches in the world.
On Wednesday M&N explored further north, driving to Fishguard and the pretty town of Newport before heading back via Cardigan and the Prescelli Hills (which they couldn’t see due to the heavy rain). Thursday was dry until the evening and M&N drove to Little Haven then Solva and St Davids where they had a wander around the cathedral close and lunch at a great little pop-up stall café. They were not able to extend the car rental so took the car back this morning. The weather forecast is still dire for the next few days, with full gales. Things may calm down by Tuesday but we will keep checking the forecast for a good couple of days for the 24-ish hours passage across the Bristol Channel and around Lands End to Penzance where we hope to anchor for a rest before continuing around the Lizard to Falmouth. As for when we crossed the Irish Sea we hope to leave and arrive in daylight so we can see any fishing pots close to the coast, and do the middle part all through the night (ar hyd y nos as they say in these parts and sing in the traditional Welsh song and the chorus of Max Boyce’s Welsh rugby song Hymns and Arias).
If things go to plan the next update should be from England. Meanwhile hywl am nawr (bye for now).
Katrina
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