Up North

After a foggy trip down the Milford Haven, the big oil tankers were all at terminals, we had a lovely evening at Dale, near the exit of Milford Haven, in the very welcoming yacht club with excellent food and a visitor mooring that dried out but gave us a good start. We left our anchorage at Dale in Milford Haven on 10th June 2021.

At our first night in Milford Haven we stayed at the Neyland Marina, where they have some fancy pods... in case you are in a Wayfarer.  We then moved to a mooring at Dale, to get a quick getaway from the Haven in the morning. We parked on the club pontoon in the morning once we the tide lifted the boat, to be ready for a prompt escape...

 

Milford Haven in the fog, is that a sh..., maybe, yes it is...

 

Leaving Milford Haven in the morning, some traffic as the fog clears...

Our aim was to sail round St David’s Head, including passing through the gnarly Jack Sound and Ramsey Sound, referred to as ‘Jack and Ramsey’ by salty sea dogs. These fairly narrow gaps between the mainland cliffs and rocky islands are infamous because the tidal flow creates fast flowing water and huge standing waves at certain times of the day. The Ramsey Sound has a rocky reef that is an attraction to white water canoeists and Mark has paddled it about half a dozen times with the Brampston club. This made Mark somewhat cautious about passing through in a slightly tubby gin palace, but of course the Kindred Spirit would be fine. After hours of nervous calculating, googling, checking and revising we had a plan – do what it says in the Irish Sea Pilot. We followed instructions, to be off St Ann’s Head at about low tide, then took our time to arrive at nearly the prescribed time but half an hour early at Jack’s Sound. We were sail motoring with light winds and went through pushing a bit against the last of the ebb flow. You use alignments with particular rocks sticking out of the sea, the Blackstones and Tuskar Rock to get the best route through avoiding hidden rocks and standing waves.

Approaching Jack's Sound...

You are supposed to be 100metres from the Blackstones???

Then steer towards the Tuskar Rock... the one on the right???

Rocks to the left and overfalls to the right...

aiming at that rock, itmust be that one!

 Then we motor sailed as quick as we could across the bay for 8 miles because we wanted to go through Ramsey Sound before it was flowing like a river at 6 knots. Many true sailors, reluctant to use the engine, will anchor in the bay for the next tide, even overnight if necessary. We pushed through and Ramsey, at that time, was a pussycat. The Bitches rocks had some flow and white water but nothing to shout about. 

As we rounded St David’s head the light winds promised a late arrival so we had another go with the Spinnaker. No photos this time because the wind decided to pick up and by the time Pete had set it up all wrong we were suddenly having an epic, but we did do 7 knots for about an hour! We continued in a more fashion, having retrieved the spinnaker, had a lovely sail all the way to Fishguard.

We sailed into the old Harbour of Fishguard, which apparently is famous for being the setting for the film made of Dylan Thomas’s poem ‘Under Milk Wood’. It is very picturesque (is that how you spell it?) and the Pilot included a line of poetry something like ‘Sloe black, crow black, bobbing fishing boat, water’ (with apologies to Dylan Thomas). We felt rude not to go ashore so pumped up our dinghy, which is always a fun activity on a small yacht with a manual pump. We failed to find the pub but the yacht club provided an after hours pint and we enjoyed a short walk round the village. 

In the morning we set off for a sixty-mile trip across a quiet sea to find Aberdaron, our overnight stop at anchor before tackling the Bardsey Sound, yet another tidal gateway. It is 12th June 2021.

It was a quiet day, we count it as a rest day. The sun came out, we both enjoyed an extra sleep down below, and we only met one fishing boat and a strange target boat used by the RAF and moored almost out of sight of land in the middle of Cardigan Bay. We got some wind later and sailed into Aberardon Bay. We quickly pumped up the dinghy, again, and sped to the beach and ran to the pub, We were rewarded with a table on the terrace, almost in the sun, from which we can supervise the boat, to make sure it stays where we left it, and write this blog supported by excellent community open access wifi.

As a mountaineer my heart lifted as the Snowdonia mountains came into view. I also have fond memories of family holidays to the Lleyn Peninsula, as a child and as a dad. Somehow, I felt I was coming home, to the north, after so long down south. My accent is strictly Hornchurch but my heart is up north. Seeing the mountains makes me feel that this trip is just beginning.

Keeping an eye on the boat from the pub terrace... extreme sailing...

Tomorrow we expect wind, good strong wind, to help us to Holyhead as we are now short of diesel, oops. We need to get through the Bardsey Sound before it is running too quick but also time our arrival at Holy Island to avoid the worst of the overfalls round south and north stack. So maybe we need the wind to be just right, blowing but not too quickly?