And back.

An early start, still dark at 04:00 and, no! the drip drip drip of rain. A miserable start. Louise on watch after we left the harbour, a bit of wind, so we could sail. Headed due South hoping to avoid the nets and pots off Hook point until the light gradually improved. And then we settled into the crossing.

By about 8am the rain had passed. The wind was from the West and teh sun came out. This did improve spirits, albeit gradually.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Rain's gone"][/caption]

As the wind continued to drop, we managed to get the cruising chute up. She flew well for a few hours, but late afternoon, just as we sighted the Smalls, there was not enough wind even for that.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Cruising chute"][/caption]

I actually very nearly caught a dolphin when raising the chute, and it dipped into the sea momentarily. I think that wold have been a first, and maybe not just for me.

Grassholm looked beautiful, as ever

And the setting sun behind Skokholm and St Anne's head, even better:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="SkokholmSt Anne's head"][/caption]

But we were on a mission. Sunday night, and the Griffin closed at 10:30. Tigger quite fancied a run on the beach too. I calculated I'd have 0.3m under the keel at the very end of Dale Pontoon at 22:00. In the event it was 0.1m, but that was fine, on a rising tide.

And so we'd made it. A brief, but extremely enjoyable sojourn across the Irish Sea. Something to celebrate. Two years, nearly, since we'd bought Ishtar, taken up sailing and did our Day skipper practical course.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A pint of Cwrw Haf at the GriffinLouise and Tigger, Ishtar on pontoon"][/caption]