Day 25 – Milford Haven to Kilmore Quay Ireland

Spent a lovely evening at the yacht club. Fabulous value in Wales – we moored for free, and could use the facilities of the club as long as we put some money across the bar!  I made full use of this by taking my camera battery and laptop charger with me and using their electricity too.  We enjoyed the local brew – Rhymney, which Fred insisting on ordering calling it Rimmer!

Lovely nights sleep – fresh bedding and a shower – one of the wonders of the world indeed!

Received a lovely text in the middle of the night from a fabulous midwife called Sue – Hiya Sue!  Not sure if you know this, but I used to manage a birth centre in Birmingham called “Serenity” which delivered excellent care to the women in the Midlands.  Sue caught the thousandth baby there last night!  Congratulations Serenity.

Anyway – a dull day today and we need to set sail shortly to Ireland and Im the skipper!  Now where is Ireland??????

Its now 11am and we are on our way to Ireland!  I have planned a passage, ensured all the crew are well and we are now awaiting an improvement in the wind factor!

I have made my first VHF broadcast!  I was a little nervous as I I radioed Milford Haven Coast Guard with routine traffic information – letting them know we are en route to Kilmore and the time of our ETA. The crew, realising of course, my skill for talking, thought I would have no problem at all!

I had it all scripted, read it aloud carefully

“Milford Haven Coastguard, this is yacht Round Britain Experience, we have just departed Milford Haven on a route to Kilmore Quay, Ireland, we have 6 people on board and our ETA is approximately 19.00 this evening, Over”

I was all ready for them to ask me to spell “Round Britain Experience” by ensuring I knew all the letters for it in the Phonetic Alphabet, but he then threw me by asking me something as basic as “please describe your boat”!  It was on my lips to say “its bloody beautiful, with these gorgeous sail thingies on the top, lovely cabins and a fabulous galley, and we’ve even got a TV with a DVD player……but all he wanted to know was it was a white sailing yacht 45ft…… Phew – my 1st VHF out of the way!

Its quite moist outside – that wet rain, everyone moaning about Welsh weather – ahead for some Irish rain!

Its now 7pm and we are approaching our destination in Ireland and looking back – its sunny over Wales!  Its been an interesting passage – the weather forecast said it would be a force 3 rising to a force 4 so imagine my surprise whilst I was on the helm around 1pm when, with the boat heeled over, I called to Fred a feeble “help” the wind had risen to a 5/6 and I was having a little fight with our little yacht!

Fabulous experience for us all as we each took in turn to helm,

Us girls look gorgeous when its wet and windy!

John holds on tightly!

Then he prays!

Can you see how white Mike's knuckles are!

Fred loves to sail

Gorgeous!

A dolphin sighting!

adjusting the sails when needed, reefing in when necessary and learning how to move around the boat at such an obtuse angle!  I am mastering the use of the head – pumping it out at the same time as filling it…..no further details needed I think.

Mike and I made use of time to continue our studies……..

We are studying very hard towards our sailing qualifications!

Well, as we are nearing Ireland, got some lovely Irish music playing and Im quietly proud of my first effort as skipper!  Complete with fabulous passage planning, great care taken to ensure all the crew are well and bringing us across St Georges Channel safely.  However……. just a tiny teeny weeny incy bitsy little mistake made in my planning – as I looked at the chart for Milford Haven tides instead of Dover when considering my tidal curves (please tell me if this is getting too technical for you!) This is a classic and very silly error which made quite a difference in our approach to Ireland when the boat was being pushed from completely the opposite direction from where I had planned.  Ahem, ahem, sorry guys!  Fred has given me a good beating and told me not to be a naughty girl again!

Anyway – Pete is busy in the galley – the first time a man has prepared a meal onboard so far – he is doing his signature dish – cottage pie.  It smells good and certainly seems to have got the smoke alarms going!

Time to go now – got to finish off my skippering duties as we bring the boat into Kilmore Quay!

Kids feeding seals at Kilmore Quay

Its now 10pm – the meal Pete made was fabulous – catering on this boat is better than a cruise liner! AND we all get to sit at the captains table each night!

We are sitting in the pub, (well, hotel, for the 2 pubs in the village have closed down) enjoying a pint of Guinness.  First time in Ireland for Chris and John, and it is has been said that it feels like we are abroad.  The main thing we notice is that everyone you pass says hello to you – not a bit like London.

As John sipped his first pint of Guinness he said as his lips a quivered, the words not quite coming out…..”tis like an angel, pissing on your tonsils!”  A FFFFredism ! Thanks for all the instruction Fred, you really have broadened our horizons!

Its been a long day, time for sleep – tomorrow we sail to Arklow – Im keeping internet usage to a minimum so keep watching for updates – goodnight!