With the long detour in mind, we set off, upping anchor at 06:30 on a beautiful hot, still summer's morning:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sunrise, Oxwich"]
[/caption]Leaving behind the other boats at anchor, we set off. We'd covered nearly 60 miles the previous day, and this one looked like being similar.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Oxwich"]
[/caption]We'd expected dolphins, I'd seen them every time I've crossed Carmarthen bay. What I didn't expect was a tired stowaway, fresh, I assume, from a long trip up from Africa.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Stowaway"]
[/caption]The dolphins were not far behind. I fired off many, many pictures; they were there for quite a while:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A dolphin"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Another dolphin"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="And, a dolphin"]
[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Guess what?"]
[/caption]We reached the position agreed with the coastguard and I turned Northwest, intending to skirt just inside the Turbot bank, staying the requested 2 miles to the West of Linney head.
After about 20 minutes, Castlemartin radioed us. They requested that they could give us a new heading (they wanted us to go further West before turning NW). We agreed and they altered our heading twice more before thanking us for co-operating.
Even with the detour and lack of wind, we still made good time, and passed crow rock before the tide turned against us, edging into Milford Haven about 17:00. Louise wanted to pick up some provisions, so we tied off on the Mackeral stage.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ishtar at Milford"]
[/caption]Yes, she does have different colours in her anti-slip paint. Louise is slowly repainting her, a bit at a time. Met a nice chap there called Andrew, with a Cornish Lugger, 100 years old, and in very good nick.
After picking up some basics for a nice curry, we set off down the haven to Dale. We were soon picking up the mooring lines, switching the engine off and enjoying a bottle of wine.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Dale"]
[/caption]
