From India to Wales

30Aug13

Farewell Ireland, perhaps we shall revisit one day and see the whole coastline – signing off at Arklow was a bit of a disappointment. With two fair tides and one foul we planned the 17-hour passage as a night sail so that we could see the crab pots on our departure and arrive during daylight to enter the busy Haven.

The forecast for a WSW F3-F4 arrived as promised and once the sails were set all we had to do was defeat the swell coming off the Atlantic. It was almost a perfect sail, we saved an hour on the passage time and the navigation lights of the cross traffic were easily identified in the moonless sky; the Milky Way could be seen in all its glory during our first clear night sky since May. A huge Saga ferry squeezed by us near St David's Head who's watch-leader acknowledged he had seen us after we had called him on the VHF, 'just to make sure!'. Buzzed by dolphins near St Anne's Head we then made a tired entrance into the marina following a 2-hour delay at the lock gates waiting for free-flow – we had missed the previous opening by a mere four minutes – and settled down to a bacon butty and a well deserved rest.