Sunset in Dale the night before out trip across the Irish Sea.




Sunrise just as we're leaving dale at about quarter to six this morning. The day looks promising!




Jean says: It was time to leave Milford Haven marina at last. We were almost becoming residents. In fact, on our last day, we met a lovely retired gentleman who was actually a resident. He'd been living on his boat Laetitia II, for eighteen years, which was moored opposite Bella Rosa. Despite needing a walking stick on dry land, he still sails it single handedly, and was able to give us a good tip or two about sailing to Southern Ireland.
We set off at ten to six in the morning, and managed to pick up an Irish weather forecast. Irish weather forecasts seem to be a lot longer than the average English one. We were given the highs, the lows, the heights, the widths and all the minute details of what was happening out there on the Irish side of the Irish Sea. After having nearly dozed off listening to it, I pricked my ears up when they mentioned "fog banks".There had been no mention of fog banks during the previous night's forecast. We were expecting an easy day's sailing for once.
Within an hour of setting off, visibility to the South of us was deteriorating rapidly. Within no time we were consumed by dense fog. We narrowly missed one big cargo ship that loomed up out of nowhere, and then had to tackle the main shipping channel, knowing that there were five big cargo ships heading our way at twelve knots. It was just like Pirates of the Caribbean.
The fog finally cleared just as we left the main shipping channel, and we had a perfect sail the rest of the way, including dolphins frolicking around the boat for long periods! Have a look at he video, dolphins are such joyful creatures.

Kilmore Quay is a delightful small fishing village, we're nicely tucked up on a pontoon looking forward to a good night's sleep before setting sail for Arklow tomorrow, weather permitting. Didn't get to see Mary and Martin because Martin had to go to Dublin, but hoping we can catch up at some point whilst we're in Ireland.