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For what seemed like the first time in ages we had a forecast that would put the wind behind us and we planned to leave so that we would be off St Ann's Head at the mouth of Milford Haven at about slack water (HW Dover +6hrs (1130)) so that we would have the tide with us as we passed Skokholm and Ramsey Islands. Given the forecast winds we would pass outside Skokholm then pass mid-way between Skomer and Grassholm before progressing up the St George's Channel passing to the west of The Bishops and Ramsey Island keeping the latter at least 3 miles distant. From there we would continue north over Cardigan Bay and either make for Holyhead (checking the tidal situation to keeping well clear of the race off South Stack) or press on for the Isle of Man or potentially Bangor. Routes and waypoints had been programmed into the GPS for all options.
We motor sailed out from Neyland and once clear of the shelter of Milford Haven encountered much bigger seas than the forecast had suggested. We continued motor sailing until we were level with Skokholm and we could bear off and make the most of the favourable tide. With a SW F6 we averaged 7.7knots over the ground until the tide turned foul at HW Dover -1hr (1730) and we were well into Cardigan Bay. As night fell the wind and seas moderated slightly although we still had waves of circa 2.5m. It was a cloudy night and as we were well out of sight of land crossing Cardigan and then Caernarvon Bays it was absolutely pitch black. Other than the occasional glimpse of the Bardsey Island light, the only thing that we could see were our own lights and it made holding a course pretty challenging as the unseen waves rolled in from our port quarter. At 0635 we were level with Holy Island and listening for the weather forecast (to help in deciding between Holyhead and pressing on) we were informed that the Coastguards were on strike again so were keeping the information to themselves. For the sake of a few miles we decided to head inshore a bit until we could get a mobile signal and pick up a forecast. Armed with this information we opted for Port St Mary on the Isle of Man which with the SW F5 holding was a speedy, if rocky, trip.
We couldn't get in touch with the harbourmaster at Port St Mary (arrival 1815), so rather than taking an alongside berth in the outer harbour (and risk being in the middle of a fishing fleet at five in the morning) we chose to pick up one of the visitors' moorings that were laid between the end of Alfred Pier and Gansey Point. Our pilot suggested that Port St Mary would be "subject to swell in strong E or SE winds". Our assumption that we would be OK in the SW F4/5 was well off the mark and if we hadn't been so tired we probably would have moved. As it was we were being rocked so severely that even the non-slip matting was struggling to hold things on the table - it ended up being rather comical!
Tides were such that we wouldn't need to leave until around 1400 the next day so we blew up the dinghy and went ashore. Port St Mary seemed to be quite a quiet place but with a good supermarket and a very pleasant tea room not far from the harbour.