Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jog 54:33N 3:35.4W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Thu 9 Jul 2009 22:47
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Milly Brown is back in Cumbria now and I am at
work.
It was an interesting trip up from Milford
Haven. We came out into a moderate southerly breeze, but with a
rather bouncy sea and set off west round St Ann's Head and inside Skokholm
Island. There we found a little yacht with no jib set, its boom to
windward and a failed outboard. Suspecting their sailing skills
were not adequate for the conditions we towed them 3.5 miles back round St
Ann's Head. They had arranged a tow from further in and set off down wind
into the haven. We both talked to the Coastguards who by now were well
aware of their condition.
We motor sailed back, then through Jack's
Sound inside Skomer Island. As we approached we were called up by the
yacht behind us, asking if we were the Milly Brown from Anglesey. We
replied that the boat had lived there previously, two owners and
10 years ago. They asked if we knew the narrow passage through
Jack's Sound and would follow us, but they would turn quickly if we
stopped. We were against the tide which made it
bouncy going in with the wind behind us, but smoother as soon as we
got into shelter. There were no bumps.
Then we ran across to the sound inside Ramsey
Island. By now the tide was with us so we sluiced though. >From there
it is 60 miles across Cardigan Bay to Bardsey Island. We made good
progress until the tide turned against us and dawn saw us creeping away from
Bardsey Island with the crew, Martin, one of the two Martins who came on the leg
up the Hebrides the previous year, muttering about how bright the
lighthouse was.
We had both spent time that night working out the
complex tides through the Menai Straights and put the engine on to push us over
the tide. Another crew had hoped to join us in Caernarvon, but was stopped
by work and perhaps Sunday trains. With our motoring we thought we could
just get through the Swellies, where the tide runs at 8 knots. We did and
then talked of stopping at Beaumaris. No. We kept going for the Isle
of Man, initially for Port St Ann at the southern end, but at dusk we picked up
a mooring in Douglas after more motoring to keep the speed up. A day
and a half, not too bad.
The following morning we set off across for
Cumbria. The skipper rebelled against more motoring, with the wind
still behind us. If it had held we would have got into Whitehaven
before low tide, but to put the engine on every time the wind drops a bit
is cheating. I was not sure of the tides at Whitehaven and to motor hard
only to find the water too low anyway seemed silly. We pottered and Martin
caught mackerel so the wait for the tide to come back was not completely
wasted. Fresh mackerel is always a treat.
We had been given different times for
the water at the lock gates and in the Solway the tide does
vary with wind and air pressure. But the tide tables were
right, perhaps we could have got in
four hours earlier. We were picked up by car from Whitehaven and
got to our beds at home that night, so it worked out anyway. A
quick trip.
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