Thursday 18th June 2015

After a very miserable night of bouncy seas, thick fog, drizzle and disturbed sleep we woke to a beautiful morning with streaming sunlight and much lighter winds, finally the area of high pressure was going to be with us today but we still had a strong wind warning to contend with.

One of the other boats leaving Lundy landing bay

Lundy Lighthouse

We left late (at 11.00am) waiting for the tide, we really wanted to travel up with the incoming tide as we knew that would make for an easier and faster ride, but in the end we had to settle for 4 hours against us and 3 with us. At the start the tide was nearly 3 knots against us, knocking 3 knots off our speed, we were barely making 3.5 - 4 knots even though the boat was moving at 8 knots through the water.  In 3 hours we had only travelled 10 miles.

In the middle of the channel the waves were impressive once again, but the sails kept us steady and eventually we had speeds of over 9 knots as the tide whipped us along in the same direction as the wind.

The sea condition settled down as we got closer to Swansea with the wind over tide conditions being replaced with wind and tide in the same direction. The sun was out and the visibility was a massive 3 - 4 miles, much more pleasant than yesterday.

No dolphins today but some impressive sea birds. Must get a sea bird book on board so that we can identify them.

We got back to Swansea bay in less than 6 hours and made the 5:30pm lock in. We were back on our berth by 6:15pm.