[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Taking Tigger ashore"]
[/caption]There wasn't a breath of wind in the harbour, so we fired up the engine on their return and set out past the breakwater, the Fishguard-Rosslare Catamaran ferry growling away at her berth, but not, it seemed, ready to fly off across the Irish Sea just yet.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Leaving Fishguard"]
[/caption]Our plans were fairly fluid. We wanted to get back down through Ramsey Sound, and then perhaps anchor for the night at Porthllysgi, or maybe the pool in Solva. Spend Saturday pottering about in St Brides bay, sailing past Newgale, Nolton and Little Haven before returning to Dale on Sunday.
That plan soon changed when we received news that our friend Vince was crewing aboard 'Caswyn', another Cardiff boat, owned by another friend, Dave. They would be arriving at Dale on Saturday. We decided to head South sooned than we'd planned, and meet them at lunchtime on Saturday.
There was still no real rush, and, despite several other yachts motoring Southwards past us, we wanted to sail. In particular, Louise wanted to hoist our cruising chute alone, which she quickly did, and did well.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Crusing chute"]
[/caption]This was one of those times when things kept getting better and better, however, as a pod of common dolphins joined us, just as the crusing chute filled and started driving Ishtar forwards.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Dolphins"]
[/caption]Tigger was fascinated. As a latecomer to the art of swimming, he marvelled at the speed, grace and skill of these advanced swimmers.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Look at those guys!"]
[/caption]The dolphins stayed with us for half an hour or so. I was surprised that they stayed with us, as we sailed - there seemed to be no action aboard the motoring yachts in front of us to suggest they had dolphons too.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="More dolphins"]
[/caption]As we rounded St Davids head and turned Southwards towards Ramsey Sound, our speed picked up. Louise dropped the Cruising chute, dipping it in the sea in the process. She was determined to try again and get it right, and she did so just a few hours later, much to her delight.
I switched on the engine for this passage through the Sound. About a mile North of the Sound, a cross current suddenly sent us 4o degrees off course, threatening to take us down the West side of the Island. We corrected and were soon hurtling through the Sound at over 10 knots speed over ground.
We saw a couple of smaller fins as we neared the exit of the Sound at Shoe rock. I steered towards them, to try and get a better view, then quickly wished I hadn't as a vicious back eddy set us twoards Shoe rock. I quickly corrected and made another mental note. Years of 'doing what we like' when aboard dive ribs in Ramsey Sound needed to be forgotten when aboard a sailing yacht. Keep on track and get through the place is the order of the day from now on.
After exiting Ramsey Sound we headed East to the nearby bay of Porthllysgi, for lunch. Tigger and Louise fancied a swim, though ultimately only one of them got wet, the other letting out a series of loud screeching noises as they dipped a toe into the coolish waters of the bay.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Porthllysgi"]
[/caption]Tigger was initially a reluctant sailor, but he's gradually learned to enjoy it, walking about on deck and observing the wildlife. He absolutely loves shore leave, of course.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Tigger"]
[/caption]An hour later we raised the anchor and set off for Skomer. Louise raised and lowered the crusing chute perfectly, but by 17:00 what little wind was left sighed and died as the high pressure built over the UK. We switched to engine power, the noise spoiling the peace of the day as we motored into North Haven Skomer and picked up a mooring buoy.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="North Haven, Skomer"]
[/caption]The last of the day tripper boats made their way past us, admiring the puffins and shearwaters, gannets and guillemots, their numbers clouding the skies and their calls filling the air as the sun sank lower, leading to a beautiful West Wales sunset.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sunset"]
[/caption]We opened a bottle of wine, and Louise started warming food. That was then delayed for over an hour, as the sound of Tigger barking on deck led us upwards to see a young seal playing around Ishtar.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Seal"]
[/caption]Unbelievably, things were still getting better, as the seal played with our dinghy
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Seal and dinghy"]
[/caption]and seemed so fascinated by Tigger that Louise could surely have stroked it, if she'd wanted to.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Louise, Seal, Tigger."]
[/caption]This was turning into one of those weekends you remember for a long time.
