... try and find us

All these fishing ports have memorials to those lost at sea - a sad reminder. After a magic downwind sail from our anchorage at Kilmore Quay, we pulled onto the visitor pontoon in the pretty fishing harbour of Dunmore East.  It's a busy place, fishing boats coming and going, a bird rookery on the cliff at the harbour mouth and the resident seal who pops over for a g'day now and then. Chinook at the visitors' pontoon, amoungst her metal-hulled brethren  These wee fishing boats are much more seaworthy than you might initially think Incredibly quaint thatched-roof cottages ... right by the sea  The weather is stunning, still on the chilly side but Ireland is (thankfully) not living up to her less-than-inviting reputation of rain, rain and rain in spring! Taking advantage of the glorious weather, we hiked the Dunmore East Cliff Path .  Yet another gorgeous hike along the cliffs, down into pretty inlets and across muddy farmland. Spring is coming with daf...

The locals popping by to say goodbye! Our last day in Wales was glorious, it was actually warm.  We pottered around doing last minute jobs while we waited for the afternoon tide.  This would get us out of the marina on free flow and have a favourable current around St Anne's Head and to push us off shallows of The Smalls and out of the Traffic Separation Scheme. Our planned route towards Ireland We had one of the best sails we have had aboard Chinook.  We timed the current perfectly, the wind was on the beam and we zipped across St George's Channel several knots faster than we planned. Our speedy progress had us at approaching the Irish coast in the early hours of the morning - in the dark.  Rather than negotiate a tight, foreign harbour, we opted to anchor and catch some sleep. We are very excited to be back in Ireland! And please remember that Blogger posts your comment as anonymous if you don't have an account, so please sign off with y...

Our glorious weather came to an end so we headed 10nm up Milford Haven to Lawrenny.  Here, we were told was some lovely hiking and a great pub!   Goodbye to the glorious, sparkling weather. Going to Lawrenny brought a new navigating dimension - height.  We are quite proud of Chinook's ability to clear shallow waters.  She can float over a bottom that has just 1.2 meters of water covering it.  Width-wise, she can squeeze through a 4.5 metre gap.  Height is something we don't normally have to worry about.  Going to Lawrenny meant that we would be passing under two height-restricting structures - a bridge and a power line. The Cleddau Bridge There are a few things to consider when you are ducking under a big structure like this.  Sea level is not a constant.  The tide brings water level up and down ... by as much as 8 metres in this part of Wales.  That is substantial when you have a 19.88-metre-tall yacht!  Add a VHF ...

... and we have a visitor!  Susan arrived bearing all sorts of wonderful treats from the depths of her luggage.  Gin, Bundy rum, bullets (the Australian lolly, rather than the "bang, bang" kind!), powdered milk, popcorn kernels (surprizingly hard to get here in the UK) - at least half her luggage was for us.  Thanks Suz! The Pembrokeshire Coast Path - all 299km (185m) of it! The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a 299km long trail that runs from St Dogmael's in the north to Amroth in the south following the Pembrokeshire coast. We have hiked small sections of the path around Milford Haven and Porthgain with Tim and Carol .  We have been keen to do more, so with the weather forecast to be gorgeous for the first few days of Susan's visit, we sailed down to Dale at the entrance of Milford Haven.  We came alongside the deep water pontoon and headed ashore for a hike. Our first endeavour - the 11km loop from Dale out to St Annes Head  Family togetherness, blu...