17 hours
50nm
3rd attempt to leave Fishguard after almost a month sat on anchor
Successfully passed through Ramsey and Jack sound

I set sail from Fishguard at 6 a.m. with my dad (a non-sailor) onboard as crew. We made good progress with the tide on our side til around 10/11. Not only did the tide turn against us but the nice force 2 westerly winds completely disappeared. Leaving us drifting in for hours on end with no working engine.

After 5 hours, we’d drifted backwards about 4 miles but managed to avoid any rocks or lee shores. The wind filled in again and the tide turned in our favour, by 5 o’clock we were making 6 knots towards Ramsey Sound. We passed through smoothly reaching a top speed of 9 knots!

The next leg of the journey saw us cross St. Bride’s Bay and enter Jack Sound. A very narrow area of water between Skomer Island and the mainland, where the tide can reach up to 7 knots. We’d timed our arrival for slack water and passed through smoothly, which was a bit scary as we had no engine as a backup. Then we arrived at Dale Pontoon in the dark, which was probably the hardest part. We got on to the pontoon 3rd time lucky at almost midnight. Tied up and went straight to bed.

Waking up in the morning the wind had picked right up and I didn’t like the idea of paddling in but luckily caught a lift from windswept on one of their safety boats.

(The fairy lights are there because my stern nav light broke)