Milford Haven to Dun Laoghaire 20 June 2022

Skokholm Island

We set off at 06.00 for what was to be our longest journey so far - 13 hours to Dun Laoghaire. 

We first of all had to negotiate the lock gates out of Milford Haven marina, and then a very narrow channel from the gates into the main shipping channel.  Some parts were extremely shallow, but we made it.

Before long we were motoring between Skokholm and Skomer - islands made famous for their Manx Shearwater studies, and indeed their large seabird populations.  As we passed these islands and headed for St David’s Head the wind freshened and the sea state became more lumpy.  We had several hours of very lively boating as we headed north - it was livelier than we were expecting and everything not tied down in the cabins ended up on the floor, including our new coffee machine.  Fortunately it is made of tuff stuff and survived unscathed, although some Vanish was needed for the carpet. We live and learn.


While the lumpy sea made us have to hang on as we moved about the boat, the boat itself was perfectly happy and took the waves as just normal business.  We were very pleased with her.

The second half of the journey calmed down, and indeed became perfectly calm by the time we reached Dun Laoghaire.  Berth ND20 was waiting for us, as was a small celebration for being back in what we think of as home ground.  


After such a long crossing we decided to stay in Dun Laoghaire for two nights.  During the day in between we refuelled at £1.72 /ltr (or actually £1.77 /ltr after Mastercard’s transaction fee).  We then calculated our fuel consumption and were extremely pleased to find that it was 21 ltr/ hr (total for both engines).  This is considerably less than we has anticipated following research when we were considering buying the boat - at that time we thought it would be about 30 ltr/ hr. So, happy days!




























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