Leaving Skomer
22 June 2015
Monday 22nd June, 2015
Darkness, thousands of stars and at 1am finally the bay is filled with the cries of thousands of returning shearwater ‘a bit like strangled cockerels’ (Amber).
We sleep. My alarm set for 6.30am to be on board to leave at 7am. No-one else wakes. Wake Ron, asking if they’d changed plans again, but no, his phone had no charge so the alarm didn’t go off. We motor off to sail to Ireland. Bacon sandwiches after changing a gas bottle, then coffee, sleep, sailing – a good wind (westerly) and sailing at over 8 knots, a new record for Ezra. It calms and I take the helm, order a cup of tea, and immediately a ‘small vessel warning: Force 6 wind all around the Irish Coast’ is issued, so suddenly we are at a 30 degree angle and waves coming over the side of the deck all the time. Three months ago I never thought I’d be able to do this.