Holyhead to Neyland (Milford Haven)

Getting the timing right was important for this trip as it was spring tides.  The run takes about 3 tides worth and so it is good to have two with you and only one against! Also, having a fair tide round Anglesey and again around St David's Head (South Wales) is important as the tide runs very fast around those areas. It is more benign in the wide Cardigan Bay. Of course, this meant leaving late evening but for once the calmer weather window fitted pretty well (although the forecast said it would become southerly and so on the nose for most of the trip).

We left just before 8pm. The ideal time for the tides would have been 9pm but we wanted some daylight left when leaving the harbour as there are a few pot markers strewn around that area and seeing them would be comforting!

The route looks pretty simple really:

The "wide berth" off St David's Head is to avoid the rocks there. There was no planned firing activity in the huge range that uses most of Cardigan Bay so that was simple too. After a bit of chop around Anglesey, the trip settled down nicely. A little swell left from the strong winds but nothing to pester the Nordhavn. We just plodded our way south at a leisurely and fuel efficient 1475 rpm. The little grass skirt that the boat had grown during our stay in Holyhead didn't help our speed of course. She has become quite Hawaiian really,

As it was nearly a full moon and with little cloud cover, the night time was not truly dark. The moonlight across the water was way better than the Samsung tablet camera could capture through grubby pilothouse windows:

Pity really that you cannot enjoy it as we did. The captain was too lazy to get out the good camera (and didn't want to disturb the sleeping crew). Sunrise was equally good, this time the crew saw it as the captain was snoring nicely:

See how calm the sea was by this stage? Lovely! (Unless you were a large and powerful yacht that left Holyhead about an hour behind us and ended up more than 6 hours behind us thanks to the lack of wind of course).

It has become a traditional thing when passing the South Bishop lighthouse and rocks off St David's Head to post a picture of it. You've seen it in sun, mist, gloom etc. Well, today, it was back to sun and reasonable visibility too:

Just around the corner, St Bride's Bay had a fair number of tankers at anchor, awaiting orders / oil price changes / space in Milford Haven / divine intervention / whatever. You can see 5 little AIS green triangles in there this time:

Wonder what the daily cost of an anchored oil tanker is. Ken - as a shipping expert person, you might be able to help with a ball-park figure? The final part of the trip was pretty fast thanks to the spring tide pushing us along. We saw 10.1 knots at times (boat speed was more like 6.1 with her grass skirt in tow). The route into Milford Haven and then up to Neyland is below:

Passing Skomer at this time of the year is less exciting as all the puffins have gone. As we entered the harbour, Steve the Cardiff waterbus man SMS'd us to say that we looked small. He was afloat in his recently purchased yacht and testing out the sails. Yes, compared to the bulk tankers that use this place, we are tiny. She doesn't feel that way come cleaning time but we are tiny really.

We had one of those amazed moments when we saw an antique cruise liner anchored off Milford. Albatros (yes, it is German run and hence the spelling is correct) is an old girl built in 1973 with a string of different names under her belt since then. The ship was anchored forrard, but aft there was a tug holding her in place with a tow line - a strange job for the tug skipper, must have been a very boring day for him:

Now you need to help us - just how would a cruise ship passenger feel being dumped in the decaying horror of Milford Haven town. They had better take the 59 Euro (yes 59!) optional tours to St David's Cathedral or Tenby.

As you can see from our course above, Neyland is a long haul once you are inside the harbour entrance but worth it. The folks here are very helpful and friendly - you always get someone wandering down to help you with the mooring lines for example (although the crew doesn't need the help, it is nice to have it offered!) We were given a hammerhead berth and settled happily onto it after 19.5 hours underway.


Stats and maintenance:

You know how long it took us. We burned about 170 litres of diesel - covering some stabiliser activity and a 10 minute wide open throttle (WOT) burn just before entering Milford to clear out the exhaust, engine bores, turbo etc. WOT eats up 33 litres an hour or so!

The sickly coloured new piece of oil drain hose worked fine, no more weeps down the engine block. Nothing else exciting to report apart from the irritation of the now not so new engine start battery alternator drive belts that are still shedding bits of black gunge from time to time. Might follow "Lugger Bob's" advice and just run with one Gates Fleetrunner belt (better quality) in place.

The end of Holyhead....

Well, the southerly gales that we hinted about in our last posts (see the nice forecast that we copied and pasted in) duly came and gave us a nice sleep disturbed night. The shelter here is pretty useless really. A big open harbour area, anything from the east is really grim. Strong winds pick up quite a strange wave pattern and that reflects off the big breakwater wall and the shore so you just get thrown around a bit - yes all 40 plus tons of Nordhavn get thrown around.

During the night of the southerly gales, we had to reprise the Dunstaffnage experience, doubling up on the lines, deploying all the fenders bar one which was discovered had been split during the pounding they took up there. You also get lots of nice grot trapped between the boat and the pontoon and when the waves kick in and the wind howls, the grot gets liberally sprayed over the boat, even reaching the saloon windows. you have to look closely but then you can see all the grey lumps we had to wash off:

you can see the multiple lines and fender nursery too.

Then it decided to blow a northerly force 7 - so the same game was repeated but this time we had to double up the lines holding her in the other direction. More disturbed sleep. Lovely.  We will have to polish the starboard side of the  hull again to protect it for the winter after these batterings (and the extreme one in Dunstaffnage). So looking forward to doing that.

Some of the workboat folks like to wake you up a little too - the crew of Enterprise need a set of radio headsets like we have to save their vocal chords. The shouting when they berth this is unreal:

Especially when it is right ahead of you (see the nice new Rocna anchor).

Still, the area is great even if the town is grim (bar Lidl of course) and the marina rather exposed. Some progress on the marina infrastructure though, the shore power worked all the time we were here - never been able to have any before. We also had a very sociable time with John and Angela (our arrival berthing party if you remember). They found us a nice slot near to their boat - so near that this is Glenisla their rather nice yacht viewed from our flybridge:

This made toddling over for pre-dinner drinks very simple indeed...

What else? Well we also met a very cute schnauzer puppy called Douglas. Dognapping him was so tempting. His owners had TGT (The guided tour) and it was quite spooky as Michael looked so much like an actor friend of ours, even down to the mannerisms. Mark the actor hails from the Liverpool area. Michael hails from Birmingham (but he said that his dad had a car so perhaps.........) Who is Mark the actor we hear you cry. Well, currently Captain Birdseye (or Captain Igloo for the German readers). Have a look at Mark's showreel.

We had a wander around Bangor (the Welsh one of course, no return trip to Norn Iron although that is tempting) and the beautiful cathedral:

Bangor is also reputed to have the longest "High Street" in the country which considering that it is one of the smallest cities in the UK is impressive. So, we walked the length of it and wondered why. It starts with some seedy shops, turns into a normal town centre shopping area then gently decays towards the port again. Go and see the cathedral, avoid the town although the university buildings are great.

Finally, a weather window popped up. A brief one of course and as it got closer so the forecast northerly wind for our trip south decided to become a lighter but southerly one - right on the nose again. Still, at least it was calming down a bit. During all this fun, the weather reports on the TV talked about "the hottest September days for many years". Not in Holyhead we can assure you. It was pleasant, not too hot. Quite happy about that really.

However, just before we left, the sun came out in all its glory, the wind abated, the chop on the water in the harbour dropped and the evening looked lovely. Proof that the sun does come out here is below: