Day 18 -Sunday 5th June Wexford still

The performance last night was good. his lyrics were interesting and with his base support and use of loops he produced a very full sound. He played piano and guitar and I loved it. He comes from Wexford, so he was amongst friends.He has an English wife from Brighton, whom I spoke to when I bought his CD. They live in the States and when he comes back, he has a lot of callers. Candidly, he said this was a mixed blessing. When the door bell goes he can't see who it is because of the bubble glass. His remedy is to put his coat on when he goes to answer. If he doesn't want to invite them in he says he is just going out.If he wants to be sociable he says he's just got in.!

I tried to leave Wexford this morning. the forecast was for a N/NE wind about force 4/5 but further up the coast it would be 6/7. I knew I'd probably have to motor sail, but I wanted to get to Arklow.

Motoring out between the sand flats, the seals were showing a lot of interest in me.They were swimming towards the boat to investigate. They wait for the sea bass that come in on the tide. It is so shallow they must be easy to catch. The channel runs parallel with Beggerin island. It looks an unlikely island on the charts.Its more of a bit of land surrounded by a couple of rivers that don't amount to much more than a moat. It's sort of beggerin to be an island!

There is a old chart in the boat club which shows how the harbour used to be before the storm in 1925. The comparisons are interesting.It wasn't even an island then! Beyond the' island'is The Raven Point and in the woods, there is the last strong hold of the red squirrel in Ireland.

As I came to the end of the channel the swell increased. I motor sailed for a while, but the seas were steep and the waves were breaking. It was not a nice place to be.The wind was not so strong, but the swell must have been generated by the stronger winds further north.These were made worse by the shallow water. Prudence prevailed and I returned towards Wexford. In the process my topping lift, which holds up the end of the boom when the main sail is down, became detached.The end was frustratingly out of reach and I knew it would mean a climb up the mast when I got back to harbour. I felt the sea was giving me a punch on the nose to remind me that it isn't always so easy as the trip I'd had across the Irish sea.

Shortly after returning the winds died down quite a bit, but I had lost the advantage of the north flowing tide and I needed to climb that mast! The lumpy seas had resulted in quite a lot of stuff falling to the floor of the cabin and I pondered how to improve things so as to make stowage more secure.I had a bit of sticky back velcro and it dawned that I could velcro all those plastic boxes down!

It seems that Ireland doesn't really get going until after midday on a Sunday. At least the shops opened though. I was half expecting them to be closed. I eventually tracked down some industrial strength velcro which is about 2inches wide and really sticks. I am going to put it every where!

I had a look in a few estate agents windows, as you do.This seemed to reinforce my view that whilst there may be a bit of decent architecture about, it doesn't extend to many houses. There was a cad sketch of a place which had approval. It's huge. Who would want to build it?It looks the size of a Roman villa, with a similar layou.

Day 17-Saturday 4th June Wexford

Awoke at 6. To go on or stay? It seemed silly to come all this way and not get a feel for the place. i have never been to Southern Ireland and may not be back for awhile so i decided to explore the town, Listening to Irish radio was a culture shock. I sort of expected radio 4 is ubiquitous and you can tune in but there is loads of other stuff.They were talking about company pensions crisis over here and how not only would contributions need to be put up but they are contemplating a "short term" reduction in the region of 10%. Now that I am going to be reliant on a pension that sounds like bad news if the UK government catch on to such a great idea.

Hylje is the one in the middle of the picture. I am moored alonside Ostrea. Its not so much that she won't be going any where- more a case of can't go anywhere I suspect.:-

Radio RG1 was enthusing about the sheep shearing championships going on in Kilkerey. i though it was a spoof, but it was clearly the real thing. the current world champion is Doug Smith from New Zealand. He sheared 504 sheep in 8 hours, and together with his brother they managed 1066 in the same time. The record for a single sheep is just under 20 secs! As I'm sure you will know he was using the Bowen technique named after the world famous Godfrey Bowen.All the sheep farmers there were in good spirits partly because the price of sheep is high because of a world shortage. 60% of the wool produced in Ireland goes to China and most of it is used to produce carpets.

Being moored up to the fishing boat meant that it was a short clamber onto the quayside.The wide pedestrian area and open train track gave the place a very European feel. The thing that surprised me was the quality of some of the new buildings.

 My image of planning control in Ireland was one of laxness and the rural areas being full of bungalows in the middle of nowhere. firstly, i went to see the new Wexford Opera House. It was built on the site of the old Theatre Royal. It is a big building and from the sea it competed on the skyline with the church spires. The young lad who told me where to moor my boat yesterday said it was not popular at first because it was too modern, but now everyone likes it. The entrance is a bit hard to find. It is within the frontage of a modest terrace, which is actually new.

At the top is the sky view cafe, which has great views out to the Irish Sea. I had a coffee and listened to "Juliette" by Dire Straits followed by "Tubular bells" by Mike Oldfield a couple of great old classics.

 The interior was well finished and there were some  fine carpet tapestries by a 30s artist Mainje Jellet. the big one was a study of " wave motions and sea turmoil". I got it completely.

Now I am being absolutely honest when I say I have never taken a photo in a men's lavatory before and its not something i intend to start doing but it looked great. Time for a makeover of the Crooked Spire, which is our samba band's hangout. I'm sure they'll be up for it.

Next i had a look at the Whites Hotel. It had a great open , light and interesting lounge foyer.

I remember seeing a poster made up of interesting Irish shopfronts. There were some promising ones here. However in the one sold cheap tools and other stuff it had some ready made grave markers at 39 Euros each. Is this an Irish thing?

There are a lot of old buildings too. Selsker Abbey is supposed to have been built by Alexander Roch who when he came back from the Crusades found that his true love had entered a convent because she had thought he wasn't coming back. What does a love struck war hero do/ build an abbey of course. I liked to think that the heart depicted in the stone work over the entrance was symbolic of his love for her.

There were some good galleries too. This is a cultured and affluent town. I like my art to have a sense of fun in it and if it isn't there I'll make it up. i liked the image of someone grappling with a bike. it reminded me of my efforts to get my folding bike in and out of Hylje!

There was sculpture of a lady lying down that I thought should have been entitled "bad Hair Day", rather than "Evolution".

There was another sculpture of a rowing vessel suspended in mid air by the oars. It begged the caption. " How do we get back into that boys?"

I used my bike to find the boat club where there was free Wifi and showers and to get some petrol. I thought my bike parked on the forecourt made a great picture. You can't tell anyone to " fill it up" nowadays, but I'd have love to say it to someone.

had a long chat on the quay side with a young guy who had a modern Moto Guzzi. It turned out he had 3 other older Guzzis and another BMW motor bike. he ran a trips around the harbour business with his father. it was good to find such an enthusiast. he knew the things inside out like I used to.

tonight there I shall probably go to see Pierce Turner at the Arts Centre. He is billed as an unorthodox singer songwriter, described by Hot press as "Joyce with a voice. Yeats on skates" I'll tell you if it lives up to the billing.

Day 16 Friday 3rd June. The bee and me to Ireland

Left Milford Marina at 5.45 am. The place seemed pretty good value at £15 for 2 nights. They were very friendly too. I'd recommend the place. The sky was cloudless and even Milford looked good as the sun rose. The tug boats were active maneuvering large boats into harbour. I wondered if the bigger the boat is the more tugs you need or whether the 3 on this one is the norm i.e 2 to provide movement and the one at the rear connected by a long rope to provide the steering. Maybe by the end of this trip I'll know the answer.

The forecast was for a force 3/4 North easterly. This,coupled with the flat sea promised perfect conditions to get to Ireland.If i was pummeled by the sea off Padstow, it looked like it was going to pamper me today.Just outside the entrance to Milford there is an interesting bit on the chart. Not a place to go diving me thinks!

I had left early to benefit from the north running tide. It was springs, so the water would be moving at its maximum. Just north of Milford is Ramsey Island and some really strong tides run between it and the mainland if you are going up the Welsh coast. The tide between Skomer and Skokholm, which was my route did not provide the same tidal escalator but it still pushed be between the islands at over 9 knots.

The view back to the two islands was superb. It looked more Mediterranean than Irish Sea in these conditions.

Way off to the west was Grasholm and it looked like it was covered in snow. i guess it.s the guano from the bird colonies.

Today I would be motor sailing the wind was too light to move Hylje at much more than 4kn and it was a long way to Ireland, with the tide turning against me at the half way stage. The flat sea and motor on just over tick over meant that I was doing about 7kn most of the time. That's good for me because 5kn is the more usual average.

About half way across St George's Channel I was joined again by a pod of dolphins. This time I moved right to the bow with the auto helm coping with the steering. From there i was able to look right down on them and hear them blow when they surfaced. I don't know what the odds are for this happening, but I feel privileged for it to have happened twice already.

Shortly after the dolphins left me a bumble bee arrived ad settled on one of my sail bags. Where was it going? Was it an Irish bumble bee? Was I going the right way for it? I didn't see it leave, but it was with me a long time. I hope I helped it a bit.

My main approach to navigation is to enter way points into my hand held GPS once i have studied the charts this then gives me a rhumb line displayed on the screen and a separate track line for my passage. I steer the boat to keep the track line on the rhumb line or parallel to it. This is not the same thing as pointing at the chosen destination quite the opposite I may be pointing at an angle to the destination in order to counteract the tide. I make adjustments to my bearing and effectively slide along the rhumb line. Close to Ireland with the tide pushing me back down the channel I was pointing about 33 degrees up stream from my destination. The old way was to calculate the heading to take account of tide.However it is not easy to predict what the tide will be doing all the time and its a complicated series of geometric calculations. my approach works for me. purists may be critical

This post is largely about tided. I find them fascinating. Reeds Almanac describes tides as GE horizontal movement of water that takes place because of the vertical change in sea levels.It provides an interesting chart to show how the water flows around the British Isles when the water is returning. It shows that the Irish Sea fills by water flowing in from the top and the bottom. This means that at a point in the middle which is called the "amphidromic point". It is near Arklow. Here the tidal range is very small because water is running in from one direction as fast as it is going out in the other. The pilot book describes this as the " fulcrum of the tidal sea saw". All this means is that i shall have some interesting conditions to deal with and as I move north the tide will be doing that way for a lot less time than its coming the other way.

When you are trying to work out which way the water will be moving the charts base their information on the times before and after high water at Dover. It is strange to note that when I was in Padstow the time of high tide there was almost exactly the time of low tide at Dover. That's a difference of 6 hours.

I arrived at Wexford at about 5pm. It's a fascinating approach.It sits at the top of 3 mile wide and partially drying lagoon. It used to be a major port but in 1925 the sea swept away a mile and a half of the protecting Rosslare Point sand pit. Its name comes from the old Norse  Waesfjord or shallow inlet, the entrance needs to be dredged and it twists and turns between the sand banks. There were terns diving for fish in the shallows next to the channel and seals bobbing up around me to investigate me.

I entered the harbour and drew up along side a young guy in an Etap 23 who was tied onto a fishing boat. he gave me a complete rundown and suggested I tie up to the fishing boat behind because it wouldn't be going anywhere.It was then into town to do the blog and grab a Guinness, I think today is the longest passage so far.72nm over the ground 82nm through the water, 80 miles or so. All under a blazing sun. my face is glowing!

Day 15 Thursday 2nd June- Milford Haven

I enjoyed my lie in and lay contemplating the stuff I needed to do. I turned on the radio and this reminded me of one thing: replace it! I have a very beat up Roberts LW/ FM radio.It has no aerial, has a rusty metal speaker grill and always works.It lives on the boat all year. I left it at home, because I thought I'd take my Pure digital one with its 2 speakers and great sound. I have learned that digital signals are virtually non existent everywhere and this radio does not make the most of FM and gobbles battery power. This is the one I should have left at home. i wanted something cheap with a good reception. The advice I later got in Radio Shack was that it would need to be an FM/LW. I found one in Tescos for just under a fiver.

Now those who have shared an office or a home with me will know that tidiness is not a virtue of mine. Sailing forces me to find a safe place for everything or it gets thrown about the cabin. A few days ago I watched from the cockpit as a loose mushroom rolled about aimlessly. It was mildly interesting wondering where it would come to rest.I was expecting I'd find it stuck to my bare foot later. Anyway, whilst not at sea things can get pretty disorganised quite quickly. Its a sort of art form with me. this morning I had run a mains power lead into the cabin and was having my breakfast with everything on charge. I took a couple of photos chez moi.

Next tasks were to contact the Engish language School in Totnes to check everything was OK and they had started using my house. I then had to notify my house insurance company of what was happening. Legal and General were a breeze compared with my boat insurers. I have a restriction on my policy which limits me to UK waters and no more than 12mls off shore. The policy excludes the Chanel Islands,Northern Ireland and The Isle of Man. When i went to Guernsey i merely phoned them up and they said OK. I thought it was going to be as simple going to Ireland. No they wouldn't insure me en route. If I took my boat be ferry they would resume insurance when I'm over there. Alternatively they would cover me over there once I got there.

Milford haven is a big place, It must have had an illustrious past. The marina is located in a basin, which has lock massive lock gates. Everything gives the impression that there have been some big craft here. In comparison the leisure boats seem fragile and inconsequential compared with the scale of where it is located.The bijou arcade of shops which have been built on the old wharf seem twee. I wonder what the hardy dockers who once trod this place would make of the scene,                                                           

The area has always seemed pretty run down to me. The retail draw on the ubiquitous Tesco shopping park says it all.

The streets seem windswept and like something out of the wild west. Even in this fantastic sunshine I find it a place that's hard to love.

I was reading a bit more of Libby Purves's "This Cruising Life" yesterday. She seemed to capture so much of what sailing means to me. She says:-

"We are not Walter Mittys,because however sensible and cautious we are, the sea is real and therefore the adventure is real too, Sailing is one of the few ways in which ordinary, desk bound and not particularly athletic westerners can partake of the ancient, honourable awesome world of self reliant adventure.... Out of the harbour we may be ludicrous hobbyists, but 10 miles out to sea we have a share in the oldest terrors and triumphs of all. We are spacemen,"

Aside from this visceral living on the edge, another aspect i enjoy is the improvisation you deploy to keeping things going.I added to my list of things lost over board one of my sailing bags. So looking for a cheap replacement becomes a challenge. Similarly my toilet bag is ripped so needs replacing. So which is cheapest a laundry bag, a picnic bag or a cool bag/ how do they differ? Such deliberations have become the replacement for how to deal with the incessant complainers in the office.

I had time to answer the question of what Guillemots eat.They are indeed like swifts in that they do not come to land other than to breed. They live the rest of their lives at sea, diving for a range of fish including cod. They look like this:-

                                                                                       

Its amusing looking at the names of some of the boats in marinas. Often they relate to how they have been bought with names like "Inheritance.Occasionally a name fits the boat perfectly. In a corner of the marina there is a neglected paint peeling craft with the name Shoestring.

The yachtsman as an archetype is a middle aged to elderly male. He may have various virtues but he is bound to be a bit long sighted. It seems to be verging on cruelty to put the smallest key pad possible on the door to the toilets.It must have been a young electrician with a nasty sens of humour who fitted this.

I went to a large gallery near to Tescos. I was taken with the script on a nice turned wooden bowl. If you can't read it -"Work like you don't need the money, Love like you've never been hurt. dance like nobody is watching." As thought for the day go this seems like a good one.



Finally to recap on the journey I will provide a continuation of the map. As I left Devon I felt strangely that the journey was now properly starting and even though I know Milford Haven, it feels like I have left the South West peninsular temporarily behind                                                                                                               

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       minds .                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                              

Day 14. Wednesday 1st June. Ilfracombe-Milford Haven and dolphins

It was bumpy in the early hours when the tide came in. The slight swell seemed to bump Hylje on her keel stub and legs on the hard sand until she settled. I needed to get up early again to catch the most of the west running tide that pours out of the Bristol Channel. I read North Devon DC's request to pay the harbour dues before leaving. The office did not seem to be visible and there was nobody around other than the fishermen. I felt guilty about not paying my dues but i needed to be gone.

Outside the harbour and looking up the channel I could see the start of Exmoor and the brooding sky over it.

The wind had moved into the west and was a force 4. It was good for a port tack all the way to Wales.I set the sails put the autopilot on and sat and looked at the sea. I felt I was doing a lot of contemplation, but was a bit short on any insight about anything meaningful. I wondered weather this water watching is as good for you as transcendental meditation, where you spend hours trying to empty your mind.

My reveries were shaken by catching some movement out of the corner of my eye. i had been joined mid channel by a pod of dolphins. It was difficult to count how many there were-perhaps about a dozen. I was tanking along at about 6,4kn in relatively smooth water. They kept coming in from the upwind side and shooting under the boat and emerging at the bow. I sit so low in the water and they were so close, I could have touched them. I certainly talked to them , Who knows what they make of mad mariners speaking to them!

The water was very clear and I could see them under the surface rather than above it. At one time it seemed they were playing a game of chicken screaming in from the side and seeing how close they could get to the bow. Taking photos was difficult because of the speed they move and the delay of a digital camera, Got a couple though!

The dolphins lifted my melancholic mood that the grey cloud start and tiredness had created. I dithered about whether to head for Tenby or Milford Haven. I  needed to go to a phone shop and see it there were any problems with using my mobile in southern Ireland. I fancied going to Tenby and thought it was probably big enough for phone shops. The approach is around the back of Caldey Island, which creates a shallow enclosed almost atoll feel.However, it was just sand and no harbour. It was not suitable for me.

Milford haven was now a long way west and now against the tide it would be a long haul. My detour was rewarded with some interesting sights. Caldey itself with its ruins looked a good place to explore.

The tide between Caldey and the main land was running at about 4 kn, so I inched my way forward. This allowed a long look at the geology of the cliffs. They were reddish with lots of indentations and caves,

The cliffs became steeper and more wild as I progressed towards Milford Haven. There was evidence of quarrying in one place and they only way to get there would be by boat, what a tough living that must be. The geology changed with the stone almost looking like it was coursed. At one place these looked like the carvings of the American presidents they have in the States.

There was a very imposing stack that looked very close to toppling over. Crow Rock it was called. Couldn't see the resemblance, but it stood like a sentinel on this severe coast line.

One thing Sam Steele never covers in her book on circumnavigation is going to the loo.She talks about eating and drinking but not what happens later. As a lone yachtsman it's not a great idea to spend too much time below decks. I use the" bucket and chucket" and approach with an old baler. The problem is that when you wear yachting clothing it means taking of the jacket and dropping the saloupettes all whilst the boat is a t 45 degrees and bouncing around. You can imagine the fun, so why doesn't she mention it. I am not one of those people who are constantly sipping on bottles of water. indeed I am probably slightly dehydrated. Heaven knows what it would be like if i had a spring water habit!

I was not looking forward to going to Milford Haven.It has a lot of memories associated with it. When I first bough Hylje about 15 years ago we lived in Worcester and I secured a mooring in Milford Haven, I imposed the 4 hour each way journey on my family and to some scary moments on the water. To Gyll and joe, I apologise for what I put you through! i felt very emotional returning there. a lot had changed in the meantime.

However, I was glad to be checking into the marina. Tonight I shall sleep like a log and tomorrow i will take it easy. I sat in the wifi place next to a guy reading Dracula on his electric book ( Kindle). He had retired 5 times and was now doing an OU degree.