She'd spotted a small tear in the mainsail on the way around, so quickly set about sewing that
before hauling the anchor and setting off for a short sail across to Sandy Haven bay. Once more she set the anchor before the tell tale patter of raindrops on Ishtar's topsides began. I was surprised, but Louise was not. She told me that the forecast was for very heavy rain - the forecast I'd seen had given light winds and fair weather.
Within an hour, Ishtar was starting to bounce around. We had considered sailing through the port and up river to spend the night at Llangwm, but a look outsaide showed that the rain was so heavy, the visibility was down to around 100m. We set off for Dale.
We quickly realised that we should have gone back sooner, as we rounded Great Castle Head. The wind indicator was showing 28-30 knot gusts from the West, blowing hard pointy rain drops into our faces. With the current against us too, we motored, making only around 2 knots, and it took us nearly an hour to get back to Dale - a very unpleasant trip indeed.
This was further compounded when we got to the mooring to find that one of our two mooring lines had sunk, meaning that I was forced to sit in the dinghy, bucking in the rough seas, fishing about under the bouy until I found it.
By the time we got below, I was soaked to the skin, and freezing cold.
Louise made some sausages, mash, broad beans, peas and gravy, followed by cheeesecake and a bottle of wine. By about 9pm, the bad weather had passed, and it looked like we might get a good night's sleep.
Nope. As I lay drifting off in the forecabin around midnight, I could feel the wind getting up again. This time the boat started jumping around far more energetically, to the point where I started to feel sick. I very rarely get sick on a boat. I realised that the wind was now blowing straight down the Haven from the East. An hour later the screeching of the wind was as loud as I've heard when aboard, and we spend a very uncomfortable night indeed, and woke bleary eyed, the remains of the gale hampering the racing yachts efforts to get out and sail.
It had calmed down almost completely by 11 o'clock, but we were both knackered and, with Louise working, and plenty of wet clothes to dry, we called it quits and set off home.
