Greetings Y'all,

 

We are now in a small bay just outside of Larne, Northern Ireland. It's actually called Brown's Bay and is very pretty, just like me, especially with my missing front tooth. I say it makes me look like a pirate. Sharon says it makes me look like an old wino! 

 

Since I last dropped you a line we have made good progress up the west coast. Our stay in Milford Haven was a bit longer than planned (4 days) as we waited for some weather to go through. Our next stop was Fishguard, just 48 miles away around the corner and the last safe haven before Holyhead on Angelsey about 80 miles away. All the harbours in Cardigan Bay either dry out at low tide or are too shallow for Symphony. All the bays are west facing and provide no protection from the prevailing west winds. So we were timing the run to match the now predictably unreliable weather forecast.

 

80 miles might not seem far but given the tidal streams we plan on averaging about 5 miles an hour when motoring. The journey to Fishguard was terrifying!

 

We left Milford Haven around 6 0'clock on a grey drizzly morning and when we cleared the estuary we realised that the bad weather which had gone through the previous day had left scary seas which were on our beam. Consequently Symphony was rolling like a bitch. Within ten minutes I had bottled out and we ran back to the shelter of the Haven and had a cup of tea! We then got the books out, checked the charts, the tides and the weather and decided that the limiting factor was not the boat, which is built to handle ocean storms, but our own confidence.

 

So we went for it. It took us around 10 hours to cover the distance around what it is probably one of the top ten treacherous UK headlands, with tidal races of 5 knots and large areas of overfalls and counter currents especially around an area of rocks and small islets called the Bishops and Clerks. We had plotted our course to avoid these but depending on the wind and tide these areas of turbulence can extend up to three miles offshore.

 

We were about two miles off the Bishops when the rough sea suddenly changed to a wild one. The waves were breaking in every direction and overfalls and whirlpools were popping up around the boat and we were getting battered!  I have no doubt that we were not in any real danger but the physical effort of actually staying in a position to control the boat made it hard (and of course I was scared shitless). We consulted the charts and realised that to divert to get round this mess would add about three hours to the journey and get us to Fishguard in the dark. But also on the charts was a narrow gap between the northermost islet (with a lighthouse) and the next set of races and overfalls. This would take us to St David's Head. 

 

It was amazing. In order to get through the gap which was to the east, we had to point the boat directly at the rocks as the current was carrying us North. "I don't like this" said Sharon. I of course ignored her as I didn't like it either and there is almost nothing worse than reassuring Sharon when she knows you are lying through your teeth (or tooth in my case). But of course one thing that is worse, is ignoring her........"DID YOU HEAR ME DAVE?" came the voice cutting through the roar of the wind and the sea like a whip cracking across my back." I winced and gave her a reassuring gaping grin. That didn't do any good....."I've told you not to smile again until you have that tooth fixed it makes you look like a dirty old man!" That sort of comment doesn't bother me much as by the time I was 50 I realised  that I was a dirty old man...all men are, some just try to hide it.

 

So I then explained that whilst the boat was pointing at Instant Death Rock (which was just in front of Slow Death Rock and Extremely Deadly Sand Bank) that we were actually crabbing and going in the right direction. "I know that," she replied " and it doesn't make it any better when you expain it". Ahhhhh.....so it was  rhetorical statement to begin with but better not to mention that. I just smiled without parting my lips and fifteen minutes later, we were in calm water, ambling along on a lovely sunny afternoon looking at the rugged cliffs of Wales. I thought of giving a large smile of satisfaction but then looked at Sharon and decided not to. So I went below and changed my underwear.

 

From Fishguard across the beautiful Cardigan Bay to the lovely village of Abersoch, a ten hour motor with no wind but we did have the company of some of the three hundred bottle nosed dolphins who spend the summer there. (Interestingly the only other UK resident population is the Moray Firth Dolphins who you can see fishing for salmon at the mouth of the Dee). These are the same dolphins you will see on Flipper but the Uk ones grow to twice the size, up to 4 meters and they don't quite dance as delightfully as the common dolphins we saw off the the Haven.

 

Abersoch is in a beautiful sandy bay with multi colored beach huts and has a very friendly yacht club who let us use their jetty to get ashore for the first time in over a week. we needed fresh vegetables, cigarettes, whisky and bacardi, although possibly not in that order.

 

From Abersoch we did a 16 hour overnight run to the Isle of Man and set off the next day for Ireland. We were just approaching the narrow channel between the Calf of Man and the main island when alarms stated screeching on our nav systems. Our GPS had failed. This was most unfortunate as after our wonderful experience back at the Bishops, we had planned the next leg of our journey very carefully and plotted all our courses and heading on the GPS plotter which was now totally ducked. The channel is only passable at certain stage of the tidal rip...and is once again surrounded by nasty things,,, including "the Tripods", "the Devils Rip" and the Devil's Tail". Yes we are now discovering that almost every inch of the west coast wants to scare the shit out of you......and I have long since run out of underwear as Sharon has not had the chance to use her washing machine lately, nor her hoover.....nor the cooker.......but I guess she does clean the toilets.Maybe that something to do with being an accountant...transferable skills and all that.

 

Anyway it was a beautiful day and we shot through the narrows and spent a night in Peel on the West Coast of the IOM (really nice place, really nice people). The harbourmaster didn't charge us for berthing for the day because we had come in with a breakdown. Compare this with Falmoth where they charged us £6. 50 for tying up our dinghy for two hours.

 

Then on to Larne and later today an 18 hour run across to the Mull of Kyntyre and hopefully as far north as Crinan.

 

I have enclosed the previously mentioned photographs + one of Sharon which she will hate. Try to spot her, amongst the other finned creatures.

 

The Drunken Sailor