HOME WATERS CONQUERING THE FEARSOME PASSAGES OF WALES

Jonty Pearce finds his planning and sailing skills tested while cruising the sometimes challenging west coast of Wales

- Jonty Pearce

As we crossed St Bride’s Bay the sun shone warmly and the great colourful balloon of our spinnaker drew us smoothly across the flat water. Ahead of us lay the gap of Jack Sound, the narrow channel between Skomer and Pembrokeshire’s Dale peninsula. Beset with sharp fangs both above and below the water, it is a passage that has earned notoriety. Carol looked at me. ‘Let’s go through under spinnaker.’ I looked back at her. The proposal to hamper our manoeuvrability with a restrictive sail plan between encroaching rocks in an area of eddies and cross currents did not seem initially attractive, but the sun was bright, the tide was fair, and we would be unlikely to have these conditions again. We lined up the transit and began, using the 4 knot tidal current, to sweep us well clear of the Crabstones, Cable Rock, and The Anvil. We emerged level with The Bench, glad to still be pointing the right way before sailing serenely onwards down Broad Sound with the spinnaker billowing strongly. We had done it! Carol and I exchanged a glance and a satisfied sigh of relief.

Sailing the coastline of Wales offers a heady mix of delight and peace combined with a smattering of challenging moments. No matter how often I sail its shores I always find something new to draw me back to accompany the joyful memories of previous trips. Our first adventure was sailing our 22ft E-Boat from Milford Haven to Bardsey Island; after a few years we upgraded to a Southerly 105 ketch, Aurial. Both craft enjoy the advantage of a lifting keel, thereby opening up the possibilities of creek crawling and crossing shallow bars into the drying harbours so common on this west coast.