The sail to Dale is about as far as Cody is likely to sail as a fleet, as it’s 10 miles each way, with a 4 hour beat to get there and a 2.5 hour broad reach and run to get home.

The forecast was exactly what we needed for the sail – a F4 forecast from WSW for the whole day and into the evening, which was delivered, and patches of sun through shelf-like cloud peppered the day.

10 boats set off immediately after briefing and were afloat and away by 09:40.

The sail was really in three parts, each third being characterised by a different environment;

• Before the Power Station (on the South shore) the harbour is somethng of a regular harbour, with interesting but normal things to see – nice houses, a ferry port for the Irish Ferry.
• After the Power Station we sailed through the Oil and Gas terminal, which has long jetties into the deep water and boats deliveing LNG and oil to the refineries.
• After the Oil Terminal jetties is a wide open, ruggedly coastal bay with very many beautiful places to visit.

We chose Dale as there is a pub, cafe and publc toilets. Dale is lovely, situated in a gap between the high cliffs of the surroundng area, with a sheltered harbour and for us on the day, a safe windward beach. 

We arrived between 13:20 and 13:40 for a lunchtime stop, and left soon after 14:30 for the return sail.

The first third across the bay was mostly with spinnakers and planing, and then the sail was mostly a dead run with the fast tide under us, to arrive at about 17:00.

We then enjoyed two field based events, group Cream Tea with scones, cream, jam and strawberries produced by Anna and Mark, and then we gathered to play Samba rhythms with Jack and Issac, and I think we were better at it this year because we had practiced last year.

And Vanessa had an app which tracked the actual sailing on the day.