2025 June 19th, Day 82. The start of a dash south-east,

Thursday a.m.

There were two unpleasant weather surprised this morning, first when I woke up there was thick fog with visibility down to 70 or 80 yards - that was not in yesterdays forecasts. By 10:30 that had thinned so I can see the coast line 400 yards away at times, it should lift fairly quickly, but it is now forecast for tomorrow. I guess with warm air flowing in from the south I (and the forecasters!) should not have been surprised about some advection fog in the mornings.

The second and more serious surprise is this morning ecmwf models for the weather at the end of next week (the UKMO does not publish beyond [but by Saturday was saying similar])

This is the worst day but the forecast for the following few days shows
quite strong winds gusting to 30 knots in St George's Channel on the 29th.

Although the timing varies a little both models agree that the
23rd is unlikely to be suitable for me to go south over 
Caernarfon Bar and south on the 23rd.

Given my dead line and assuming the forecasts do not change very quickly I need to head back sooner rather than later. 

My problem now is light southerly / easterly winds in this area until Saturday afternoon when they start to increase, then on Sunday and Monday strong south-westerly as shown above.

The winds in the St Georges Channel may not be helpful tomorrow:

Although it is forecast to improve during the evening, not a
problem motoring but I could do without it.

Tides going south are not that helpful, turning foul today at Lunchtime although the wind is ESE F3 might be OK for some of the route south. Leaving here very early tomorrow morning can't be relied on due to the likelihood of fog that would be a serious problem for some miles due to all of the pot buoys.

This mornings forecast:

Forecast for Irish coastal waters from Malin Head to Carnsore Point to Loop Head and for the Irish Sea

Wind: East to southeast force 3 or less. Increasing force 3 to 5 imminently, strongest for northeast and southwest areas.

Weather: Mist and fog, especially for southern and eastern areas. Becoming mostly fair.

Visibility: Poor in mist or fog. Otherwise good.

Outlook for a further 24 hours until 06:00, Saturday 21 June 2025

High pressure across northwest Europe will continue to steer in a mostly light to moderate east to southeast flow. Low pressure in the nearby Atlantic will gradually advance eastwards too. Fair, apart from well scattered thundery showers,

According to the models the F5 referred to should be further north.

I had decided against Irelands Eye tonight as potentially uncomfortable if the wind is a tad more southerly than predicted and the same goes for Dublin Bay but I think there is now not much option. So when / if the fog lifts a bit more I am heading south to one of the above or preferably to Wicklow if the sea state suggests I could anchor there for a few hours before setting off early tomorrow, the wind should be OK, if I get there and it is not tenable (unlikely, but it could be v uncomfortable), I'll be in for another overnight trip. 

I'll decide where I will head for in Wales tomorrow, probably after I have left, the main options being:

• Fishguard which is a very safe harbour unless the wind is in the north, where I can resupply (by dinghy) when my fresh food runs out.
• St Brides Bay / Skomer - I would need daylight for that as this as I have not been there before and the anchorage is tight.
• Milford - but that is a long way especially if I don't leave from Wiklow, I don't want to repeat last years rush from here to Milford.

Either way I expect a lot of motoring, fortunately I have fuel for 3 times the distance from here to Milford.

Thursday p.m.

I left at 10:45 after the fog lifted enough that I could clearly see the shore, it clamped down a bit half a mile offshore and was patchy until I was approaching Lambey Island but good enough for me to see pot buoys in time to avoid them, which I had to do on 4 occasions 2 of them would have been very close or a hit.

On radar watch I saw electronically a surprising number of small boats out in the fog.

Fog clearing north of Loch Shinney.

I was sailing from around Loch Shinney but it was extremely frustrating with the wind coming and going, I would wait 5 minutes to see if the wind, or calm would persist or not then not long after it would change again. I started the engine 8 times before I gave up off Irelands Eye when what wind there was veered to the south and I motored from then on in a very calm sea.

Ireland's Eye, Howth behind and left.

I had been tracking this fast ferry for about 25 miles and just
got across her bow before she entered the TSS past the banks
into Dublin bay.

I made Wicklow and anchored a little after 8 o'clock.

Facebook Posts:

Good news, it is flat calm at Wicklow. Bad news there is a fun fair in town and ear shot. pot buoys ahead so didn’t risk going further.

39 miles in ten and a half hours.

Click here for Fishguard.

2025 30-31st March, Days 1 & 2 to Dale and Wicklow.

I left on Sunday evening during free flow (for convenience, it turns out the lock gates were fixed but for some reason I was not on the appropriate email list and no one thought to put a follow up note on the Facebook post to say it was fixed) with a promise from the models for a week of good weather and helpful winds. The first prophesy still looks correct but the wind forecast changed for the worst that evening and at the time of writing (Tuesday pm) still looks problematic, more of which later.

A present but cool trip to anchor off Dale for an early start next morning.

To Dale

Dale anchorage, later in the season there would

be quite a few boats anchored here when the

wind is from the west.

With the highest, and lowest, tides of the year I anchored a bit further out than usual as the forecast, which was wrong again, said the wind would turn easterly, light but enough to swing me into shallower water.

I was up and away at 04:15 with no wind and a smooth sea. Butting out against the tide was a bit slow but the tide turns westerly off St Anne's Head well before high water in The Haven.

I over estimated how quickly the west doing tide increases in strength and was half an hour late to my waypoint off of South Bishops but things then speeded up in a big way:

Making 5 knots through the water and almost 12 over the
ground thanks to the highest tide of the year.

Unfortunately none of the promised wind arrived and it was an 18 hour motor.

Despite the curved track I did not change course by
more than 5 degrees from passing the S Bishop Lt
west of St David's Head until north of the Arklow
bank a few miles short of Wicklow.

Sunset over Arklow Bank and its wind farm.

Anchoring off Wicklow was risking a disturbed night and a possible early exit as there is no shelter from the easterly wind forecast for the area but the evening download of the main models suggested a wind slightly south of east on this bit of coast so I opted for some needed sleep and was lucky, there was little or no wind and I had a quite night and 6 or 7 hours of rather broken sleep, it being particularly cold and I could not get my feet warm.

Wicklow anchorage in the morning.

Contrary to the forecast yesterday, quite a bit of wind is coming, and on Wednesday or Thursday likely from the NE - realistically I can’t get to Ardglass before it arrives and there are no anchorages I would want to be in with a F6 SE backing NE so if the forecasts are the same in the morning I will sail to Howth just N of Dublin in a promised fresh breeze and stay in the Marina, probably till Friday.

96 GPS miles in 18 hours from Dale. Sunny most of the way, even warm at times with a spot of sun bathing but cold early and late,

Click here for Wicklow to Howth.

2023 May 1st, Day 17 Carnsore to Wicklow

10 hours of very good sailing reaching in F3-4 occasionally 5, then the W - NW wind died and switched to the east so on went the iron topsail c 6 miles short of Wicklow head fighting 1.7 knots of tide.

The north side of  Wicklow Head.

Wicklow and the Harbour.

Not so attractive in the other direction.

52 miles in 12 hours and 450 miles from the Hamble.

Click here for an unplanned visit to Howth.

2022 St Kilda Days 22 & 23 to Wicklow then The Skerries

The tide again required an early start as it would for the next 3 days, this time I was away by 03:30.

St Margaret's Bay to Wicklow 

06:00, on a dead run in a F3 wind. At night the 10.5" iPad is
easier on the eye and on my back than the 7" screen low down
on the back of the cabin. It is less good in bright conditions.
Care is needed along this coast, there are strong currents waiting
to set you onto the offshore banks or to the shore.

I started with just the genoa then added the cruising chute as the wind moderated and was making good progress, as the wind dropped further I changed to the spinnaker with mainsail.

 

I had the 60m symmetrical  spinnaker up for about 3 hours but
took it down when the wind got to 15 knots, on the almost dead
 run it was fine in that wind but I thought the gradual increase
would continue and I was right, 20 minutes later it was 20 knots.

I finished this leg under genoa only in F5 winds. St Margaret's Bay to Wicklow, 53 miles in 13 hours.

Wicklow harbour management does not get a good write up in the pilot and its not really suitable for yachts anyway but in reasonable conditions there is a decent anchorage just NW of the harbour close to the shore, the holding appears good and it was a comfortable night until the boat swung broadside to the small waves coming in around Wicklow Head but the roll was not excessive and in any case I had to get up and weighed at 03:40. heading for The Skerries. 

Wicklow to The Skerries.

I had planned to go round all of the Islands before heading west to the harbour but seeing a yacht motor out through them against the tide I did a quick check and just short of high tide there would be plenty of water to go inside one or both of the two outer Islands, the passage inside of the outer island is easier and about the same distance to the destination so I went that way sailing under the reefed headsail only 

Through the Skerries to the harbour.

There is no dedicated area for anchoring so you have to pick a spot between moorings that, at least in early April, were widely spaced. Near springs with a fin keeled boat you can't go too far in and I was a little worried about surge as I explored but I need not have worried, it must have been the wake of a boat because I had a restful afternoon and night, although the later was cut short by the need to leave early... again.

Picture from the anchorage on arrival.

Later in the afternoon the weather improved and it was quite pleasant.

The next planned stop was Ardglass in Northern Ireland and I tried to phone ahead to check likely availability of a berth but could not get through, then I checked the web site to find that the marina was closed to visitors until further notice due to work on the pontoon moorings. 

This was bad news as it was likely to be getting quite windy from the S or SE and the next all tide harbour or safe anchorage is 70 miles north in Belfast Loch and as will be explained in the next post there is a nasty tidal gate to take into consideration, a long day was in prospect.

40 miles over the ground in seven and a half hours.

Click here for day 24 to Bangor.