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.
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…
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 😉
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…