The forecast promised Force 4 to 5 from the northwest – bring it on!! That got me out off bed and I was soon ready to go. I quickly went ashore to pay for the night but was please to find it would be free, as I had had to go on a mooring for the night. In fact the fee was a donation to the RNLI which I was only too happy to supply – only partly because my wallet had about 100kgs of coppers in it!

I motored out of the harbour, in no wind and it took an hour and three miles offshore before the wind filled in. With the boat moving through the water at 6 knots in a upper force two and the tide adding another 2 knots we were moving quickly off to the outer side of the Castlemartin firing range.

Just after 14:00 we started to turn up into the wind, up the coast towards Milford Haven. I knew the tide would be turning but at the time the wind was making the going good. Two hours later the wind was still strong now up to a force 4 (while that is strong for this trip) but with the tide turning the sea had smooth. Enjoying the sailing I kept going until the coast stopped moving backwards! Checking the GPS I finally gave up when the tide increased the tacking angle to 175° from the normal 70-80°!

Two hours motoring later I was in the mouth of Milford Haven. With my chart on deck and radio tuned to Milford Haven Radio, I followed in a large oil tanker.

Motoring up to Neyland took about an hour but it was worth it. I had picked Neyland as a) it is has 24 hour access and b) it gave me the chance to travel a long way up the harbour. However, Neyland Marina is also a very nice place to visit, hidden away in a valley.

The manager of the Marina welcomed me in and even photocopied a weather fax; it had been long day with plenty of sailing so my bed was soon found.