Where Did The Summer Go?

Those of you who have been following my blog won’t be surprised to know that it has been quite a while since I last posted anything.  Somehow other things keep taking up my time and I find that yet another month has gone by without me hitting the keyboard.  Therefore I thought that I would write something like a summary of what we have been up to since arriving in Milford Haven back in May.  Hopefully this blog entry will give you a taste of what challenges have faced us, repairs we have done and what our plans are going forwards.

Our journey around Land’s End was our first (and to date only) major passage and we felt a great sense of achievement having safely arrived in Milford Marina.  We planned to stay a night in the marina to restock the boat and rest before taking up a swinging mooring at a boatyard further up the River Cleddau.  We ended up staying three nights as the wind picked up and we didn’t fancy trying to pick up a mooring buoy in difficult conditions.  It also occurred to us that getting on and off the boat from a mid-river swinging mooring in a fast flowing current without an outboard motor was going to be nigh on impossible (or at least reckless).  We had been talking about getting an outboard motor for a long time.  We toyed with the idea of electric outboards, second-hand engines or buying new.  We had been given the opportunity to try a Torqeedo electric outboard whilst we had been at Mylor and we were reasonably impressed with it.  However, charging the batteries would be a problem if we spent a lot of time away from shore power.  Second-hand petrol engines could be a minefield.  We might have been lucky and found a good one that had been looked after, but when you are relying on it for your safety I wasn’t willing to take the risk.  And so we found ourselves buying a new Mariner 4hp outboard motor and I have to say that I am very impressed with it so far.  We have used it many times over the past few months and it seems more than capable of ferrying us from boat to shore and it uses very little fuel (so I don’t feel as though we have compromised on our environmental credentials too much).

We left the marina to take up our swinging mooring which we had booked for a month in advance.  I have to say that we were less than impressed with the boatyard on this occasion.  It was only by chance that we spoke to them a couple of days before our arrival and mentioned that Wendy Woo weighs in at 20 tons.  They hadn’t thought to ask us and had told us we could use any mooring buoy on arrival.  However, having told them our weight they quickly changed that and told us to use one of the last two buoys on the river as these were the only ones rated for our weight.  Furthermore, when we arrived there had been no preparation of the buoy itself and we found that the pick-up buoy and mooring strop were completely twisted around the riser chain making it impossible to lift it over the bow.  Thankfully a member of the boatyard team happened to pass by in a RIB and helped us untangle the lines and moor up safely.  Lessons learnt: always mention the weight of your boat when booking a mooring and don’t assume that the mooring buoy will be easy to attach to.  In hindsight we could have tried lassoing the buoy to make the initial attachment and then sorted it out later, but we hadn’t had much practice on mooring buoys at this stage.

Our month on the mooring buoy presented a number of challenges.  The river current at this point is particularly strong on spring tides.  Getting on and off the boat usually involved us getting wet and we were glad that we had bought the outboard motor as rowing against the current would have been very difficult.  Resupplying the boat usually took two or three return trips.  We broke up our time on the mooring by visiting family.  This meant that we also had to get Lily (our cat) on and off the boat.  She coped remarkably well with the ordeal, probably better than I did!  Our main challenge however, was riding out a Force 9 storm that came straight at us for nearly 24 hours.  The mooring itself was sheltered from all directions except the South-West and yes, you guessed it, that was where the storm came from.  We spent a sleepless night on board hoping that our mooring lines would hold us.

We had placed extra lines out to give some assurance but then you just have to sit there and be ready to act if it all goes wrong.  Thankfully our lines held, but the toe rail repair I had carried out was ripped out, and this time the fairlead ended up in Davy Jones’ locker.  Thankfully this was the only damage sustained.  Not so for one of the other yachts on the moorings as we could only watch helplessly as the wind managed to unfurl their headsail and rip it to shreds.

Once our month on the swinging mooring was up we prepared for leaving.  Our plan was to try and spend 5-6 days at anchor before having a night in a marina for a ‘shore shower redemption’ and replenishment before leaving again.  However, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.  In this case the enemy was the weather which, for most of the summer, has been fickle to say the least.  So, although we did manage several stints at anchor we were anxious that we had somewhere to go to if the weather changed for the worse.  Another ‘enemy’ was Covid-19.  Rumours were rife that Wales might have been heading for another lockdown and this might have meant that we would not be allowed into any marinas as visitors.  I spoke with Milford Marina on several occasions about the potential for problems with lockdowns.  We had our names down for a winter berthing package and they said that there ‘shouldn’t’ be a problem if the Welsh Government announced another lockdown but this didn’t fully allay our concerns.  Thankfully we were able to persuade them to allocate us an annual berth in the marina and so we find ourselves with a place we can call ‘home’ if lockdowns do continue.

Living in a marina is not what we really had planned.  However, it is serving a purpose for the time being.  It has allowed friends and family to come and visit us and the location of Milford Marina is ideal for access to some great sailing grounds.  Milford Haven Waterway is pretty well sheltered from the worst of the weather.  Yes, you have to dodge large oil and gas tankers, and the oil refineries don’t present the best backdrop for photographs, but other than that it is a great location for exploring further afield.  Having said that, our adventures have been curtailed somewhat by the aforementioned fickle weather.  Several times we have done all the passage planning to head for Tenby, Fishguard and further up the Welsh coastline only to be thwarted by strong winds and/or rough seas.  Perhaps bolder sailors than us would have pressed on regardless, but we want to enjoy sailing rather than endure it.  We have managed to complete a few trips and a couple of them are worthy of specific mention.

The first passage we did we were aiming for Fishguard.  This entails passing through both Jack Sound and Ramsey Sound, and you have to get the tide timings spot on otherwise you can get stuck in violent tidal races.  You have to pass through the sounds at slack water and you have an hour and a half to get from one to the other.  We arrived at Jack Sound, which separates Skomer Island from the mainland, exactly on time and we passed through without incident, although the water looked as though it was boiling.  However, having got into St Bride’s Bay the wind dropped and, if we were to make it to Ramsey Sound on time, we would have had to motor all the way.  We decided that, rather than push on we would explore St Bride’s Bay instead and look to anchor for the night.  St Bride’s Bay holds a special place in our hearts.  For many years we brought our boys to the beaches along the bay where we camped and messed around in the sea.  Newgale, Solva, Broad Haven, Little Haven, have all borne witness to our family trips.  Approaching these places now from the sea gave a whole new perspective.  We approached Newgale first and then tacked our way south to eventually drop anchor off Little Haven.  We stayed for the night looking at the lights in the village and remembering good times.

 

The following morning dawned with fog all around us.  We knew that a northerly force 7 was due by the end of the day so we had to find a more sheltered anchorage.  We knew of a small bay in the neck of Skomer Island that would give us shelter so we headed off in the fog to go back around the island, this time taking the seaward side.  The chart showed turbulent water close to the island and the almanac recommends keeping two miles off.  I thought that I had given the island a wide enough berth, but no.  I underestimated the distance and we got caught in the Wild Goose Race to the west of Skomer Island.  The tidal current was flowing very fast and the water was all over the place.  I pushed the engine hard and, although we were doing 7 knots through the water we were only just making headway.  I steered us further off shore in the hope of finding calmer water and once again Wendy Woo looked after us.  We made it safely to the anchorage, but not without given ourselves a fright!

The fright was worth it though.  We got ourselves close in to the anchorage and stayed there for two nights listening to the wind howl over the top of the island.  And we were treated to the sight of thousands of puffins and guillemots flying around and diving into the water.  There was also a family of seals swimming in amongst the rocks and basking in the sunshine.  We will never tire of seeing such amazing creatures.

 

The second of our passages saw us making our way eastwards to Tenby.  The Bristol Channel is a very tidal waterway with strong currents either helping or hindering progress.  We planned our passage to make best use of the east going flood tide which meant that we would need to be at St Ann’s Head for around 9am.  We left our berth in the marina and headed out to St Ann’s Head as planned and we were all ready to turn south-east when the range safety patrol boat approached us.  This stretch of coastline is home to several military ranges: Castlemartin, Manorbier, Penally, to name a few.  We made radio contact with the range and we were told that we needed to keep 3 miles west and 4 miles south of Linney Head (it could have been worse, they can send you 12 miles south!)  So we altered our course plan to comply.  There wasn’t much wind and the water was smooth so we resigned ourselves to a slow motor-sail along the Bristol Channel, hoping to keep the favourable tide for most of the journey.  As we approached St Gowan Shoal cardinal buoy we were joined by a pod of dolphins, the first we had seen close to the boat.  They frolicked and played at our bow for about 20 minutes, rolling over to look up at us.  This was a truly magical moment.

We felt totally blessed by this gift from the natural world, but also outraged at the amount of rubbish we could see floating along the tideline in the Channel.  It encouraged us to do even more to reduce the amount of packaging we consume in our daily lives, as clearly recycling schemes don’t always work!  The rest of our journey to Tenby passed without incident and we anchored of the North Beach for a couple of nights in blistering heat.  The beach and town were packed with holiday makers and we were so glad that we had our own bit of space to relax in.

 

The remainder of our time this summer has been a mixture of frustrated passage planning and spending as many nights as possible at anchor away from the marina.  We had hoped to travel north as far as Liverpool, but each time we planned it the weather changed and frustrated our efforts.  We have had to accept that this is now part of next year’s plan to get as far as the west coast of Scotland.  Dale has become a favourite anchorage for us.  It has good shelter and holding, and there is easy access ashore using a seasonal pontoon.  This has enabled us to walk a good chunk of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path as well as giving us inspiration for art and writing.

 

How well has Wendy Woo stood up?  In my next blog I will detail the problems we have encountered, repairs we have done, and what we plan next in order to keep her in good shape.  Till then, stay safe.