Marvellous Milford made possible thanks to support from the Thomas Pocklington Trust. Travelling on a Sunday often has it’s challenges, especially following two days of strikes on the railways. Our intrepid crew had set off from Preston, Plymouth, Newbury, Gloucestershire and Milford Haven. Lloyd had the greatest challenge with cancelled trains, no assistance and a general mismanagement of his journey but arrived with a smile on his face to join local lass Malika, Brandon from Plymouth, first mate Jennie and skipper Tim.
The weather was lovely, the boat from our friends at Pembrokeshire Cruising was in great shape. Jennie had pulled together all the recipe ideas discussed in our pre-trip zoom, organised the shopping and covered every meal, a fantastic job. So we loaded up, had our safety briefing, talked all things sailing and what we wanted to do on our week aboard. Malika cooked up a delicious prawn chow Mein for supper and we retired ready for the off in morning.
There was wind, and plenty of it across Monday & Tuesday, short film shows Lloyd helming the boat, there are two reefs in the main and the headsail is part reefed, sun is shining, sea is pretty flat and we were making over 6 knots in a steady north easterly wind.
It’s fair to say that skipper worked the crew pretty hard across the two days, we tacked, we reached and we ran before a warm and steady breeze. This is a short film of Brandon tacking the boat, Lloyd and Malika are working the jib sheets and the skipper is sitting and enjoying being sailed by a well drilled crew! The sun is shining and Brandon is calling the tack as we make our way back into Milford Haven, in the background is the ferry that runs between Ireland and Wales.
The wind fell away on Wednesday but we were off and had a chance encounter with one of the large tugs used to manoeuvre the big tankers. We’d discovered Brandon’s grandad was on one of them, and we found him. Picture shows Brandon sitting on the cabin top, in the background is the largest tug in Milford with 8000 horse power at it’s disposal, Charlie (Grandad) is standing on the side deck with arms outstretched, it illustrates the size of the tug as he looks very small compared to the 40 metre tug boat.
Malika then drove the boat with Jennie alongside taking us to Dale Bay for a night at anchor. Picture shows Malika at the helm.
Following an epic breakfast, cooked up by Brandon and Lloyd we made our way out to the island of Skomer, it’s a magical place, here’s a link is you want to find out more: skomer-island There is a short film below made when we were at anchor, standing at the bow the camera pans around the bay, there are high cliffs on three sides with lots of empty puffin burrows, there are also pictures of Brandon and Lloyd hard at work on breakfast duty.
Pictures of the epic breakfast with Alt text:
We got back to Neyland marina on Friday afternoon and welcomed Charles Colquhoun, the CEO of Thomas Pocklington Trust, onboard for a cup of tea and a homemade, yes, I repeat homemade, on the boat by Brandon & Jennie, delicious Welsh cakes.
Picture shows the crew standing in the cockpit behind the Visa-gb dodger, from left to right on the front row, Charles, Brandon, Malika, Jennie, behind are Tim & Lloyd.
On Saturday Brandon and Lloyd set off home and we were joined by Andrew Windsor, a first time sailor with Visa-gb, and Charles was pressed to join us for the day. It was a beautiful but rather still day but we set off to hunt down some breeze. Charles was soon in action working with Malika as we motored out. Picture shows Malika at the helm with Charles alongside. The second picture taken from the front of the boat shows Andrew sitting in front of the mast with Jennie to his left, looking back to the cockpit Malika is at the helm with a slightly pensive Charles standing alongside.
Andrew anchored the boat as we stopped for lunch then the breeze filled in a bit and we manged to work our way back up towards Neyland under headsail, Andrew helming and steering an impressive course for a first timer to the marina. As Andrew had bought the boat out he was given the responsibility for getting us back into the dock – nice job too! Saying goodbye to Charles and another thank you to TPT for making this all possible we had a last night onboard. Then Sunday morning saw rain, it was time to go home and reflect on such a great week. Picture shows Andrew, Malika, Jennie and Tim holding the Visa-gb dodger while undercover of an awning as the rain falls.
Thanks to Pembrokeshire Cruising for their support, Jennie for the great provisioning and most importantly to Brandon, Lloyd, Malika and Andrew for the inspiration, sailing skills, cooking, laughter and can do attitude.
On Visa-gb trips there are no passengers just participants.
We hope to be back in Milford for more in 2024, plans for all our sailing will be published in a few weeks.
Empower, Encourage, Enjoy.
