The ‘Erly Tour – Milford Haven to Fishguard

11 June 2021 – Milford Haven to Fishguard

I decided to give Colin the benefit of the doubt and wait until the morning before making any decision. However, a couple of other things happened where he disregarded my requests/instructions – either from forgetfulness (not good) or willfully (worse) – made my mind up and I asked him to leave (as tactfully as possible).

I ended up staying two nights in the marina which allowed me to visit the large Tesco supermarket which is a ten-minute walk away and get some provisions for the next leg. Milford Haven is a fairly industrial area and the town was pretty dead. Whether this was normal or as a consequence of Covid I couldn’t say – maybe a bit of both.

I left the marina around 09:30 to take the morning free flow and made my way out of the sound, dodging a couple of large ships on their way in. The tricky bit of this passage was going to be the overfalls (that’s rough water for you non-nautical types) at the end of the two headlands at the south end of Cardigan bay. I hadn’t really planned it in too much detail but thought I’d take a look into Jack Sound and if it looked too hairy I’d go around the outside, and that is exactly what I did. When I got within about half a mile I could see it was looking pretty rough so I turned around and headed out between Skomer Island and Stokholm Island. Of course, this also involved two sets of overfalls with a small gap between – which I completely missed!

After having been knocked about for almost an hour I finally got through and into good water. I decided that I wouldn’t mess about at St. David’s Head and went well off Bishops and Clerks. That probably added an hour or two onto the trip but they were comfortable hours!

I dropped anchor just off the Old Town of Fishguard around 22:15. 45 miles, 13 hours.

Anchored in Fishguard

This was a really nice anchorage with good holding but I expect if the wind had too much east in it it could be a bit rolly.

The following morning I rowed ashore and had a look around the old harbour which was very pleasant…

Old Harbour

and then walked up the hill to take a look at the “new” town. I didn’t get much further than “The Royal Oak” for some reason 😉

A cracking pub
Interesting…

The food and the beer here were excellent and the service was great (and very attractive!). If you are in Fishguard do check it out.

The town has a very nice looking town hall…

Town Hall