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.