Day 15 - Dale to the Isles of Scilly

 The last passage south to the Scillies would be our longest at 112NM and would take 19 hours. The pilot book advised first time visitors to arrive in daylight and we needed to enter on the first half of the rising tide. This is a precaution, if we were to run aground the rising tide would lift us off but also we wouldn’t be battling against the tide on the way into the anchorage. Additionally, the winds were forecast to get up on Sunday evening so we wanted to be secured to a mooring or at anchor before then. 

New Grimsby Sound between Tresco and Bryher was the logical choice as it offers fairly good protection from the easterlies that were forecast, provided a direct route for passages from the north and had less rocks to avoid than the other main anchorages. So we settled on leaving early afternoon which should mean we would arrive in Scilly between 6-9am.

After a last walk along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, we had lunch and prepared the boat for the passage ahead. We weighed anchor at 14:00, headed out of the entry to Milford Haven and set on a SW course with genoa and engine on against a foul tide. The NE following wind was forecast to die away later in the afternoon and during the night. It didn’t, it was pretty much 14-18 knots the whole way which meant we made good progress. Our progress was punctuated with the company of dolphins - I’ll never tire of seeing them gracefully swerving in and out of the bow wave. At one point we had 8 or so dolphins frolicking around us.

The first night’s watch was Lou’s before I would take over 3 hours later as we approached the Traffic Control Scheme (TSS) off Land’s End. This is effectively a big round about for large ships so that they don’t crash into one another at this congestion point.

I managed to get a few hours sleep and took over from Lou who was in no danger of falling asleep during her watch as she continually checked that the large number of cargo vessels around during her watch would pass clear of Sulaire. I was more fortunate as the TSS was clear as we passed north of it and made for Scilly. 

The dawn slowly broke and eventually I could see the islands of the archipelago appear on the horizon. We pulled into New Grimsby Sound and spotted a few free mooring buoys and picked one up in the lee of Tresco. By the afternoon the moorings and anchorage were full of yachts waiting out the strengthening easterly winds in the best anchorage in the Isles of Scilly for winds in that direction. We headed to shore in shorts, t-shirts and sandals. Boy is it pretty here…but more of that later..night…night!

Day 14 - Aberystwyth to Dale (Milford Haven)

Feeling a little trepidation setting in as we set off on our longest passage of the trip so far at 12.5 hours - this was added to by another yacht’s crew asking where we were going as we were readying for the off. “Really” came the reply when I said Milford Haven. This was followed up with “we’re going on the next high tide to avoid the 30 knot plus winds forecast for the late evening at Milford…but I’m sure you’ll be fine in your yacht”. Mmmm…we were expecting gusts of up to 28 knots as we approached St Anne’s Head but I’d checked the tidal gates and we would make it through Ramsey Island on a fair tide and it would mostly be fair passing to the west of Skomer Island. Also we would be in the lee of the land after that which should take some of the bite out of the gusts.

We had a beam reach most of the way down and after a lull early afternoon the winds did build as we headed south but died away as we approached Ramsay Sound. The tides carried us through at 9 knots and we headed to round Skomer Island scattering the rafts of puffins that were eagerly plucking sand eels out of the nutrient rich waters.

The winds built again, as forecast, surging to a 30 knot gust between Skomer and Ramsey Islands but Sulaire was well reefed and took it in her stride. 

We finally turned into the entrance to the Haven and made for a large, well protected anchorage at Dale and dropped the hook by the cliffs at the north side of the bay - keeping well clear of the sea grass beds that have been reestablished here by the university - as the sun went down casting the anchorage in a golden glow.

Despite the strong gusts of winds the anchorage was pretty well protected and we jumped in the dinghy to stretch our legs and let the fluffy 2nd mate do her poo. 

Passage time 11 hours…not bad…night, night!

Day 13 - Pwllheli to Aberystwyth

A shortish hop down Cardigan Bay to Aberystwyth which would take us 5.5 hours with a following breeze but we would have the wind on our tail. Unfortunately, both Pwllheli and Aberystwyth are tidal harbours so we had to leave Pwllheli 3 hours before local high water (11:50) and get into Aberystwyth up to 2.5 hours after local high water (11:40)…tight!

With the tide running across and slightly against us we deployed the Genoa (big foresail) and cranked the engine up. The sun beat down and we peeled off the layers as morning tore on. Sipping a mug of tea in the deck saloon Lou shouted dolphin! Up to the bow we went and 4 of them (3 adults and a calf) darted in and out of Sulaire’s bow wave, turning on their white sides to espy us from below. They rode along with us for 20 minutes or so and joined us again a few hours later after they had scooted off to chase a shoal of fish.

We made Aberystwyth about 20 minutes ahead of our ETA and rounded into its tight entrance. However, the bigger problem was entry into the inner pontoons where we had been allocated a berth. As we squeezed between two large yachts with only inches to spare we found our berth and were assisted by a couple of friendly berth holders.

After securing the boat we went ashore with our first stop at the marina office to see if the replacement anchor windlass control had arrived. Despite the somewhat inefficient lady at the office we traced down the package. Back at the boat and a quick test and all was working again…hooray!

A long walk up to the old hill fort overlooking the town then around the university town itself and along the promenade to watch the pasty students strip off and take in the first strong rays of the year, despite the increasingly gusty northerly wind.

Back at the boat we ordered a Thai takeaway and I set about preparing the passage plan for our longest passage of the trip so far, 12.5 hours, down to Milford Haven or the anchorage at Dale to be specific. With a continued, and strengthening northerly wind, the anchorage at Fishguard would be untenable.

Passage plan done and bellies full we watch a bit of TV on the iPad before settling in for the night.

Days 11 & 12 - In port at Pwllheli

 

We got stood up!…the electrician did say he would be a few hours after I called him in the morning. The initial electrician that we had called the evening before, and confirmed he was coming in the morning, got back in touch in the morning apologising for crossed lines as he was a rigger. Ah the irony…confusing rigging lines with electrical ones..ahem. So whilst I made the boat ship shape in the afternoon…a strange expression as its form remains unchanged, it retains the same boat dimensions but is only a bit cleaner…Lou headed off for supplies at the Asda, a 20 minute walk away. After a number of texts and unanswered calls the electrician texted back at 1800 to advise it was getting late…thereby adding ‘Speaking Clock’ to his extensive CV. Promising he would be there after lunch the following day I resolved to resolving the unresolved problem with the anchor windlass the following morning.

And I did! We’ll I didn’t resolve it but I traced the problem to a blown resistor/chip/valve thingy in the remote control handset. A new one has been ordered online to be sent overnight to our next stop at Aberystwyth Marina. 

After a long walk with Bea we took the boat round to the fuel pontoon and filled the tanks for the next stage of our journey. All boat jobs done, we decided to take the train to Bangor Porthmadog. Not as pretty as I was expecting and full of train spotters. However, we did walk round to Borth-y-gest which is a very pretty little enclave.

We are set for an early start in the morning to sail against the tidal stream to make it in time to get over the bar at Aberystwyth before the tide goes out…time and tide wait for no man, ladies or fluffy dogs…night…night!