Milford Haven Sea Fair 2006

Milford Haven Sea Fair 2006 – Log entries from Charles – Skipper.

Saturday 31st June

Time to head home and an early start with a bit of engine maintenance, with everything tested and double-checked; but we got going almost straight away as the lock was due to close at 10:20hrs. No wind at all, so we motored on but didn’t make much headway. Ian began to get concerned that we wouldn’t reach Watchet by 23.30hrs, as high water was 23.00hrs. We decided to go on and made the gates at 23.51hrs, which was perfect timing. Back home very late Saturday night after having done about 13 – 14 hours sailing.


Friday 30th June

Joined Ginny & John for a brunch of fresh prawns, garlic, freshly smoked mackerel, bread and salad – wonderful! After this we upped anchor and got back in through the lock and into Milford Haven for Friday night. As soon as we had moored up at Fish Quay I went off with diver-friends, Carl and Phil to have another look for the keys. Once we found the position we spent an hour diving but to no avail. Very grateful to them for trying although they have not given up and have offered to try again at a later date. The Milford Haven Farewell party started at 20:00hrs so unfortunately I missed a lot of that but made it back just in time to catch the end of it, which was great. We then went back to Josefine and had a few drinks with friends till 01:00hrs before turning in.


Thursday 29th June

After a good night’s sleep we awoke to find that there was no wind at all. So, accompanied by John & Ginny in their boat, we motored round to Watwick Bay - a good holding area. Once the mist burnt off, a beautiful day started to erupt, so we had a fishing, beach and barbeque day in this glorious spot that could only be reached by anchoring off and going ashore in a rib. It was a fantastic day with good company, swimming and guitar playing towards the evening, Ian taking a turn. We did have a bit of a mishap in that the original set of keys to Josefine got dropped into about 8 m of water. Even with our best efforts, diving and taking the position of where they fell, we did not find them.
We marked the position, and then returned to Dale Roads and anchored off onto the Griffin Arms once again for an evening of sea shanties and a band playing outside with lots of people and atmosphere. Snowy the pub owner laid on food and it was a fantastic night where we returned to Josefine just before daylight.

Wednesday 28th June

The Race to Skomer Island… Our crew of friends came aboard at 08:15hrs and we made our way to the starting line at Milford, although we were a fraction late. It made little difference as we found that there was no wind and the whole fleet went on full canvas and just drifted down. It wasn’t until we got to Dale that we got a bit of wind but most of the fleet by this time were ahead of us, Josefine being much heavier for her size than most of the others. There were a couple of vessels behind us so it was very pleasant and off we went to Skomer Island. We saw Puffins and Dolphins out there, - but didn’t see any rabbits Cheryl - sorry about that! We then got a reasonable wind so we carried on out past Skomer Island for a bit of extra sailing before tacking and coming back round a bit closer into Skokholm Island, for a look.
Back at Dale the crew disembarked onto John’s rib and headed for the Griffin Arms. I stayed aboard Josefine for a couple of hours to make sure she didn’t drag on anchor and that she had a good holding. I then joined the rest of them at the pub. At this point a few of our friends had left so John, Ian, Laura and myself went back to Dave & Penny’s boat for a curry and a few drinks, then on to John’s boat for a night cap, with Ian falling asleep on both boats! John then dropped us back at Josefine and we all turned in.


Tuesday 27th June

Following an interest expressed in Josefine and arrangements made the previous evening we collected Ruth and Marc at 09:45hrs and took them up the river for a two-hour sail as our guests. After a pleasant sail we deployed Laura to return our guests home using the tender, allowing us to carry on down the river towards Dale, Laura catching up with us a short time later, which worked very well. We arrived in Dale in the evening at the visitor’s pontoon for old gaffers. We had pre-arranged a six-guest crew for the following days racing, who consisted of friends we had met along the way – John, Ginny, Dave, Penny, Caroline & Christina.


Monday 26th June 2006

By Monday morning the weather had closed in a bit so we decided to diverge from our itinerary and take a trip up the River Cledau to Lawrenny and anchored underneath the castle. We got talking to a few people from Lawrenny Yacht Station who offered us a mooring just a couple of miles back down the river, so this is what we did.
The Sail And Oar Section was holding a barbeque at the local pub, The Lawrenny Arms, and they very kindly invited us to join in. We had a wonderful evening of good food, wine and stimulating company - Many thanks to them for this fantastic evening.
During the course of the evening we met the landlord and landlady, Ruth and Marc, and consequently sat talking till the early hours, planning future visits and wonderful things that may be possible for next year and Josefine’s prospective guests.
On returning to the boat we were amazed to see fish jumping everywhere. We quickly got out our fishing rods but even with our best efforts, casting far out to where they were, we didn’t manage to catch anything, not even a twitch, quite extraordinary.


Sunday 25th June

The number of boats had swelled from sixty-seven to around a hundred by Sunday morning and we spent the day seeing old friends and meeting new ones. We met a very interesting couple who had just bought a hull of a Danish Kotter. They wanted to keep everything as traditional as possible so were very interested in Josefine’s lay out and configuration.
In the evening we had a Skipper’s meeting and managed to get ourselves registered. We then attended a Sunday night party followed by a trip to the pub, leaving at a reasonable hour to return to Josefine for a look at our itinerary.

Saturday 24th June 2006

We slipped lines from Hammer Head B in Watchet at 04.35hrs heading for Milford Haven.
The Wind was a South Westerly 2 with some cloud but generally good visibility. We proceeded on a bearing of 300 degrees Magnetic, eventually tightening to 290 degrees Magnetic, reaching Lynmouth Point by 08:55hrs. Josefine was birthed at the fishing quay in Milford Haven at 18:04hrs. Unfortunately we were unable to register as the offices closed, but were still able to attend party being held in marquee at Phoenix Bowl! Met a few people and had some food very pleasant, then carried on to Chart House for the rest of the evening.