Saturday 4th September, 2021, Kinsale to Dale, Milford Haven
We woke up with thick heads! Both feeling hung over and had not slept well. So we headed in to Kinsale to get some supplies for the trip back and then pulled up the hook after some lunch and with a heavy heart (and head) started the long trip back to Wales.
The winds weren’t ideal for the trip back, but now we had no choice if we were to make it back in time for Vinnie to start college. Sailing on a schedule never works! It was a good start though, as we sailed out of Kinsale Harbour doing 8 knots on a beam reach. The forecast for the wind was from the South East and was due to veer further South later. That never happened! We had to fight our way across the Irish Sea. The sea state was not too bad, but the wind angle meant we could do one tack all the way up the coast to almost 15 miles from Dunmore East on the South East corner of Ireland. Then the wind completely died.
We motored for 6 hours directly towards Milford Haven towards the Traffic Separation Zone just off the first of the Smalls. Now the wind picked up again and we tacked our way across the TSS. Finally after waiting almost 24 hours, that Southerly wind kicked in. The last 25 miles were bliss with 6-8 knots at 60 degrees apparent which whisked us right round St Anne’s Head and into the entrance to Milford Haven. We motored the last couple of miles in to Dale and dropped the hook with a big sigh of relief.
165 miles in total; 28 Hours of sailing, and the 8th crossing of the Irish Sea! Arrived Sunday 5th August @ 1700.
Monday 6th September, 2021, Dale to Portishead.
No rest for the wicked as they say. There was still 90 miles to go to get back to Portishead. In the end it was very easy. The wind gods decided to take a couple of days off. We were sad to be leaving and entering the muddy waters of the Bristol Channel once more, but we were looking forward to being re-united with Vinnie again!
We motored the whole way to Combe Martin, taking advantage of the strong tides. We saw a huge pod of dolphins, which is rare to see in the Bristol Channel in our experience. The the dreaded fog descended and we had to very slowly edge in to Combe Martin Bay to drop the hook for a 6 hour rest whilst we waited for the next tide.
Off again at 0100 to catch the tide….
It was a beautiful starry night as we motored back up the channel. We could clearly see the milky way, Jupiter and Saturn. It was a quick motor back on the Bristol Channel super highway, averaging 9 knots and as the sun came up, we were on the last leg up to Portishead. Finally we arrived at 0700 with an easy lock in and tied up at our old berth…. like we had never left!!!???