As I eluded to in my last post – the passage up here to Milford Haven was a little rough. Well, in fact it was a lot rough! I’m not sure is I should share this – but I will. I cleared 17 buckets of water out of the main mid-ship bilge when we got here! AND – it was still draining in – so more to come. Apparently after we finish this little jaunt around the Island the boat is going in to be overhauled – that’s of great comfort to us – the next trip will be safer! I think we may have a leak somewhere (and we need a leek to make lunch – so, in the words of the song – What a difference an “a” makes! Sorry about that – a bit of cabin fever may be.
So then – the wind behaved as predicted and while they were strong (Force 7 gusting 8 – which is quoted at “Some twigs broken from trees. Cars veer on road. Progress on foot is seriously impeded” On foot – try at sea mate!). The issue was the state of the seas. They were forecast to be moderate occasionally rough. So what does that mean? Moderate is about 4 to 8ft waves (measured from the mean height of …….you don’t need the rest of the definition – if you do Google it!)) and rough means 8 to 13ft waves. Well bugger that – the waves were rough from the start – and on top of that we had significant swell. Added together – things were nasty from the start and while the sea occasionally got better – we had way too much weather about us to have the little experienced crew take time on the helm – so that meant 3 of us doing an hour on and two hours off throughout the 18 hours of the passage. As I was skippering – I didn’t get a lot of sleep when I was off the helm – just making sure all was well and keeping an eye on our course. I’m pleased to report that we arrived where we wanted to – pretty much at the time we predicted and all was well with the boat and the crew – and then –

Arriving safely at the entrance to the port should have been massively uplifting (and it was to a degree) – but shortly before then, the heavens opened and the seas rose up and the visibility went to “not a bloody hand in front of you” (technical terms) and the temperature dropped significantly. So this was the weather we had to work with to take in the sail, enter the port and motor up the channel to the entrance to the lock that would lead us into the Marina. Well – it is what it is and we just had to grin through it!

First time for all of us in Milford Haven the port. I once visited here when I worked for Kingfisher – to visit a Comet store. I think I came in under the cover of darkness and left as soon as possible. Darkness was around midday! I’d prepared a pilotage plan and luckily had it in my mind and not just on the paper- as the rain’s arrival completely soaked the piece of folded paper with the plan on it (yes – numpty – should have had it in a plastic folder!). We navigated our way through the buoys and cardinals, preferred channel markers and “death to the English” signs and eventually got through to the lock where we had to circle and wait for about 20 minutes until the lock keeper could see we were well and truly soaked – before he opened it up and let us in.

The rain poured until mid afternoon – through our breakfast and sleeping time and then as we started to awaken and stroll up to the shower block for ablutions – the sun came out and dried up all the rain! The wind blew and we were able to dry most of our stuff and through the magic of hatches – the inside of the boat. Milford Haven went from an industrial wasteland of oil and gas installations to a really nice and quite green place – looking across the water to the Pembrokeshire countryside surrounding this natural inlet (which doesn’t seem to have any rivers running through). That said – we stuck our noses into the town itself after dinner last night and frankly, my first impressions seemed to be more supported than refuted!

So now, 24 hours after having arrived, we’re sitting mostly dried out and having had a splendid night last night. We eventually ate the chicken stew I’d made for the journey (it had the better part of a bottle of red wine poured into it that I didn’t think was going to travel too well). Surprisingly, no-one felt like eating the stew while on passage (may be it was the prospect of immediately returning the stew to its previous admirers – good decision). We drank some decent red with dinner and then retired to a local bar for a couple of snifters. While we all caught a few hours sleep after breakfast yesterday – we all still managed to sleep about another 9 or so hours last night. We’ll need it – as we have another night passage tonight over to Dublin!

I think I can say that the passage up here from the Scillies was outside of my “comfort zone” and that is a topic that I pondered on for much of my time at the helm coming over here – and so I’ll share those exciting thoughts with you a little later on! SO – was it sensible to make the trip through that weather – I guess the answer is yes. I learned a ton and came to appreciate Milford Haven more than I normally might have. So that’s a win, yes?

More from the wonderful city of Dublin tomorrow. Photos to follow.

Pip pip,

N