Our plan for cruising in Ireland and the UK this winter was based on watching the weather last year while wintering at St Katharine Docks. We saw a few stronger weather systems blow through, but there were also plenty of windows of decent (but cold) weather for moving the boat.
As luck would have it, last winter was extra mild, and this winter has started extra strong. After no named storms all last winter, there have already been four in the first couple of months of autumn and winter this year. In between the big named storms, a steady procession of slightly-less-strong gales have marched across the Atlantic before pummeling the Irish and UK coasts. The weather has been pretty consistently terrible.
But after weeks of waiting, the edge of a high pressure system pushed northwards towards the British Isles, settling down the sea state and promising moderate winds for the ~150nm crossing from Ireland to the UK. We would have been happy to stay longer at our snug berth in Crosshaven, but we’ve learned to take advantage of good weather when we can.
Even with the good forecast, we saw a steady 25-30 kts of breeze, well more than expected, along with the choppy seas that are created by stronger wind. Luckily for us, the wind direction was aft of the beam, just as forecasted, and Oso nonchalantly loped over the waves at 7-8 kts.
Around the sometimes dangerous Land’s End at England’s southwest tip near slack tide to minimize the wave state, sunrise found Oso approaching Falmouth – the same landfall we originally made when we first arrived in the UK in 2022. And one advantage of winter sailing – we have the entire anchorage to ourselves!
