Report & Photos by Mark Evans

Having recently got the boat back from Porter’s after my accident on the East Coast Cruise, I decided that the Dale cruise looked very interesting. So with Dave my regular crew unavailable, I asked another Wanderer sailor Stephen (1319) to join me for the weekend. With the forecast looking dodgy I set off Friday morning, in the rain, for the 7 hour drive across the widest point of England to go sailing for 2 days – my wife thinks I am not all there!

Arriving at the campsite at Marloes Friday evening, the sun appeared and all seemed well, but the rain came again all through the night and by the morning Stephen and I were about ready to pack our bags.

Having met up with the organisers David and Anne on the Friday evening, we decided we should at least rig the boat and have a go – and we were very glad that we did.

A total of eight Wanderers launched from Dale on the Saturday morning  and as we set off the sun came out along with a fantastic 2-3 breeze.

From Dale we headed east along the coast towards Sandy Haven but with the good winds we arrived too early to land, so we took a detour around Stack Rock to look at the old fort there.

Landing at Sandy Haven for lunch with the tide out meant dodging a few rocks on the way in, but after lunch we took a walk up Sandy Haven Creek and, given the disaster with Sea Empress here a few years ago, noted the amazing amount of sealife visible in the creek at lowtide.

After lunch and with the winds continuing to stay steady we took a small detour across the Haven to sail around Thorn Island, before heading back up towards Dale. Once in the Dale Anchorage my crew Stephen, gaining in confidence after major surgery, decided we should do some Spinnaker work – the winds by this time making it ideal for practice runs. We finally landed about 5pm and with the boat in the carpark headed off to enjoy dinner at Dale Sailing Club.

Sunday morning started a bit overcast as we set off for a sail out into the Estuary towards St Anne’s head  but with the swell rising to 1.5m we turned around and headed into Watwick Bay for lunch.

As we arrived, the sun came out and the temperature rose. Watwick Bay is one of those lovely secluded (nearly) locations that are increasingly rare in the UK, and after a couple of pleasant hours here the Wanderers set off again  with a final route that took us around Thorn Island.

We then headed up the Haven on our own to play with the big boats, and with the spinnaker up  we quickly passed Angle Bay before eventually turning around at Popton Point to head back to Dale. The winds remained steady at 2-3 and with the clear skies we finally got a suntan – something lacking so far this year.


Driving back on Monday morning was really rather depressing after such a great weekend’s sailing. My thanks to David and Anne for a organising a cruise at a great venue – maybe next year I’ll bring the kids.

Mark Evans & Stephen Carey W1438

Other boats attending:
To Be Advised