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Hugh, Anne and Hector's Sailing Adventures
Hi folks
It is now the 5th of June and we are back in the UK - Milford Haven in Wales to be precise. The weather has not been kind to us so far and it feels like we are doing a winter cruise with the cold, strong winds and heavy seas we have been battling through. Our journey from Howth rates as one of the worst days 'sailing' in my life. We had to use the motor as the wind has been resolutely from the south (on the nose for us) and the sea was rough. The boat was thrashing through these conditions, rolling a bit and frequently submerging the bow causing walls of cold sea water to sluice down the decks and soak us. I can now confirm that Hugh and Hector are the only two crew that don't suffer from seasickness and we were glad to divert to Arklow in Eire to recover our composure.
Hector is coping really well, despite the dreadful conditions - he either takes to our bunk or wedges himself against a bulkhead on the floor until we arrive in harbour, then he reappears when the fuss is all over looking for food and company.
We decided to wait in Arklow for a day or two until the weather improved and with the weather forecast promising a move to the west and a reduction in wind strength we set out for the Scilly Isles on Saturday morning, planning to continue on to France if the weather was good enough. It wasn't. We started out sailing in brisk conditions regularly gusting 30 knots. At least we were sailing and the boat motion was much more gentle even though we still had fairly rough seas. The highlight of the day was when a group of dolphins appeared alongside the boat and swam alongside us for a few minutes. They came very close to the boat and were leaping completely clear of the water as if they were enjoying the quarter wave from our boat. I have never seen them so close up before and they were just amazing.
As the evening approached, the wind hadn't moved to the west and the sea state was still fairly mountainous. Our next waypoint would be a beat directly into the wind and waves and we changed course and head for Wales instead, arriving at Milford Haven at 1am in dark and stormy seas - Hugh is having to work overtime in these conditions.
Sunday - fogbound in Milford Haven - Monday - hopefully another attempt at the crossing to France.
Anne
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