Aberdovey

Just a short hop up the coast today, 8.6M to Aberdovey. We rang the harbour master from a few miles out, and were told that they would meet us on the water, and shown to our mooring - service !

Aberdovey is a fairly large estuary, with large expanses of sand at low water. The town itself is very attractive, with lots of nice shops and cafes. We went ashore using the dinghy, and had a walk along the beach barefoot.

In the evening, we were treated to another spectacular sunset. After a quiet night on the mooring we prepared to go to sea, and left just before 09-30, bound for Pwllheli.

Aberystwyth

We had arranged to meet up with my Mother & Brother whilst in Aberystwyth, and booked in to the marina for four nights. The berth allocated turned out to be fine, and with very few people about, was very quiet. At the north end of the town there is a cable tram up to the top of the hill ( The Cliff Railway ), this afforded super views of the town and the scenery up the coast towards Aberdovey, and ( in the far distance ) the Llyn peninsular

The sea front is an attractive mixture of Victorian buildings, Pier, and a modern Promenade. The town has a resident population of about 12,000, but this more than doubles in term time due to the University.

The beaches are rather grey and pebbley, and after the recent heavy rain fall, were covered in debris washed down the rivers, and deposited on the beach at high tide.

Access to the marina with anything other than a flat bottomed barge is about HW +- 2 Hrs, and looking at the entrance at low water, it was hard to believe that we had come through here in a yacht.

Another after effect of the recent floods was the deposition of huge amounts of gravel in the river end of the marina - in the photo below, the boats clearly standing on gravel should have been floating !! The marina management seemed to have to spend a great deal of time and effort with a digger and dump truck moving gravel upstream of the weir in an attempt to reinforce the weir itself, and wash the fines out of the dredged material out to sea. With the weather we are having this year, this seems like a Forth bridge job !

This is the view from the weir, looking towards the sea wall, with 'NJ' in the centre of the photo.

After another thorough soaking on Friday 6th ( when we met mum & Pete ), we intend to move north again on Saturday, possibly to Aberdovey or on to Pwllheli.

Fishguard

The passage from Milford Haven to Fishguard took us around Skokholm, and Skomer Islands, then North towards Ramsey Island ( where 'The Bitches' tide race runs between the island and mainland ). We passed outside the 'Bishops & Clerks' rocks, outside South Bishop Lighthouse. We had a very efficient passage with up to 4 knots of fovourable tide !

In a southerly the wind was reputed to funnel through the anchorage in Fishguard Lower Town, and this proved to be the case, however, the boat lay to the wind, and we had two very comfortable nights at anchor. We took the dinghy ashore, and had a walk up in to Fishguard centre to pick up some milk, and a few other provisions ( Welsh Cakes !! ).

As for the passage from Milford Haven, the tides were such that we needed to sail over the afternoon up to Aberystwyth. We rang the marina in the morning to secure a berth, and were provided with pilotage instructions for entrance. After motor sailing for most of the afternoon we were tied up in our berth by 19-40.

Milford Haven

We moored up to the visitors pontoon in Dale Bay at just before 22-00 having covered 68M from Padstow. In the morning, the sun was out, and there were lots of dinghys out in the bay, including this one with brightly coloured sails.

A little later we decided to move to one of the marinas further up Milford Haven Sound, this involved navigating through all the oil and gas piers, not to mention a variety of large vessels coming and going. One thing we did notice was that when any large ship passed moored oil or gas tankers, a large tug was always in place between the fairway and the tanker - presumably to push any ship away from the tanker in an emergency ! This can be seen in the photo below, with the tug between the tanker and the Irish Ferries ship.

We decided to go into Milford Haven Marina, and after quite a long wait for the gate to open, we entered the most enormous lock. We were requested to move to the far end of the floating pontoon, and were subsequently joined by a beautiful square rigged  traing ship. We had to wait an hour for the lock to be opened into the marina, so time for a cup of coffee.

We spent two nights in the marina, then, after re-fueling, left while the lock was open on 'free-flow', just before a tanker was due through the lock, and then to the dry dock which ran parallel to the lock basin. We returned to Dale for the night to be close to the entrance.

The tides are very strong off St. David's Head, and we needed to wait until 13-00 before setting off. After motoring out for an hour and a half, we turned to about 340degrees, and sailed for the rest of the afternoon with a monumental tide under us - we logged a maximum speed over ground of 10.4Knots !! We arrived in Fishguard and were anchored off Lower Town at 19-50.

Bristol Channel

We were rescued from a potentially very booring day out of sight of land ( except for a tantalising view of Lundy ) by a very special experience. At 11-45 a pod of dolphins came to visit us, and play in the bow wave of the boat. They continued to make appearances on and off all day, sometimes staying for half an hour or more. I managed to get a 6 minute video from the pulpit, and have attached a shortened version ( 2 minutes ) to this blog.

We arrived at Milford Haven at dusk, and made for Dale, where there is an anchorage. However, a floating pontoon had been provided, which we shared with one other yacht from a sailing school.

Padstow

The passage from the Scillies had been quite hard work, with some big seas, and generally light following winds. We had a visit from a pod of dolphins at about 10-00, just before we turned to 090degrees to cross the traffic separation scheme off Lands End. Once clear of the TSS we turned up to about 060degrees towards Padstow. We arrived at Padstow just about spot on the HW-2Hr opening time for the flap gate installed across the inner harbour entrance.

By 19-50 we were moored up against the harbour wall, with a pub just at the top of the ladder!

The Camel Estuary is a very beautiful place, with large expanses of drying sand at low water. Unfortunately, this attracts masses of people, and the town was very busy, most of the time.

One of Padstows claims to fame is the seafood restaurant empire built up by Rick Stein, this is now supplemented by a deli, pattiserie, fish & chip restaurant, a bistro, and at least two hotels - we sampled the delights of the fish & chips ( very good ! ), and the pattiserie ( twice !!! ).

Pasties seemed to be de rigour, and near the town centre we spotted three purveyors of pasties next door to one another - we sampled Rick Stein's from his patisserie.

After three nights in Padstow we decided it was time for a change of scenery. The tide was getting later and later, delaying our escape. Looking over the charts, the anchorages off Lundy, and Clovelly looked good, and the timing of the exit from the harbour meant that we could not reach Swansea before the locks closed at 22-00. In the end the weather made the decision for us, with a nasty burst of E or NE wind forecast - this meant that Lundy and Clovelly were untenable, so a course was set for Milford Haven, unfortunately missing out most of the Bristol channel. The harbour gate opended at 09-50 on 27th June, and we were through by 10-00 ready for a long day at sea.

Isles of Scilly - Another World

As we were undertaking a more 'offshore' passage, we logged our intentions with Falmouth Coast Guard when we left the Helford River. It rained slightly to start but by 09-25 we were off Lizard point and the rain had stopped. At 12-20 the 'Wolf Rock' was on our starboard side, and the Scillies were in sight. We approached St. Mary's Sound at 15-15, and started the tricky pilotage across Tresco Flats. With Sue steering, I took up position on the bow looking out for shallow spots - this was no mean feat, as even with nearly four metres of water on the sounder we felt that we were about to go aground the water was so clear! Anyway, we successfully got through the shallows, and picked up a visitor mooring in New Grimsby Sound. When we paid the harbour master for our stay he suggested moving up the sound a little as strong SW winds were forecast, and we would be less susceptible to swell further up the sound - this proved to be really good advice, as we ended up riding out two gales during our stay !

The next morning we took the dinghy ashore to Tresco, did a little shopping in the Tresco Stores, then had a wet walk around the northern end of the island, taking in New Grimsby, Old Grimsby, Ruin Beach, and the twin castles ( King Charle's Castle, and Oliver Cromwell's Castle ), with some fantastic views over the anchorage from the former.

 That evening we were treated to a fantastic sunset - the rain having dried up by late afternoon.

The following morning we hunkered down in the boat waiting for the occupants of one of the other moored boats to make the first move ashore, as the wind was blowing very strongly. Our neighbours finally made a move, and we followed shortly, beaching the dinghy on Bryher ( the other side of the sound ). Even though the wind was blowing, it was a lovely sunny day, and we had a very pleasant walk around the southern half of Bryher. The vegetation on the Scillies is very lush, and quite exotic. Many of the hedgerows were full of succulents, which were in full flower, with vivid colours.

We had a good view of Tresco flats at a similar state of tide to when we arrived.

This water taxi obviously didn't have any worries about the depth through the shallowest section !

At low tide the whole of the area takes on a different aspect, and you could imagine the dread that this place instilled in sailors over the years; there are jagged rocks everywhere - but it is incredibly beautiful, especially when the sun is shining.

On our last day in the Scillies, we took the ferry from Bryher to the main Island, St. Mary's, had a fine walk from the capital, Hugh Town, to Old Town, and back through a marshy nature reserve, with the first flowing fresh water we had seen on the islands - I wonder where their drinking water comes from ? The ferry we came over on wasn't due to return until about 15-30, but another smaller boat was leaving at 14-00. So, after a very nice lunch in the Mermaid Pub next to the sea wall in Hugh Town,  we booked tickets, and after walking across three or four other boats, we alone boarded the boat. All started as expected, but as we approached 'Nut Rock' the boat made a sharp turn to port. We began to think that it was having to go right around Bryher to get to the landing stage we had embarked from that morning, however, after one of the crew went to pick up one customer off a beach on Sampson Island using a RIB which had been towed behind, we realised that we were going to get our feet wet. Due to the lack of water over Tresco Flats we would be dropped onto a beach on the south end of the island. There was a crowd of about twenty or thirty people waiting on the beach with trousers rolled up, waiting to be picked up. The water was VERY cold, but it was quite an experience, and we did get a good view of the west side of the island. From the beach, it was a twenty minute or so walk back to our dinghy, but we managed to get back to 'NJ', and get the dinghy pulled back up onto the davits before the rain started.

That night was forecast to be wet and very windy, but subsiding by the morning. We saw nearly 40 knots on the anemometer, with horizontal rain - it was truly horrid, and we half thought that the passage to Padstow we had planned would have to be cancelled. By the morning the wind had, indeed, subsided, and the rain had reduced to an annoying mizzle. 

We set of at 07-45 into some impressively large seas which reduced as the day wore on. One major excitement of the passage was a pod of about five dolphins coming to play in our bow wave for a couple of minutes - a great end to our visit to the Scillies which has been the highlight of the trip so far.