It
was
blowing old boots, NE 6-7 and rain with it -so turned over and had a long
lie-in.David's involvement in running The Great Ramsey Race as part of Ramsey Lifeboat Day 1999 meant that we were much later starting our annual cruise this year. Our plans are to visit the SW area of Ireland - Cork and Kinsale etc - and if the weather is settled and fair, to complete a circumnavigation. The emphasis, though is on having a holiday - not an epic adventure, so time will tell.
Friday 6 August 1998
After a relatively modest amount of final preparations, including loading
Stephen & Philip's mountain bikes over the aft deck, we left Ramsey in very
calm weather to head south. One idea had been to motor on through the
night, but with the chance of some thunder - and a wind rising a bit higher than
forecast, we decided to rest the night on one of the visitor buoys at Port St
Mary - where we arrived at 10pm. We'd covered 26 miles by the log - of the
90 or so mile to Dublin.
Saturday 7 August 1998
The wind stayed fresh all night - coming from the east, so a rather rolly
night, saw us wakened by 6am - in time to catch the south-going tide off Chicken
Rock. A grey day. Glen & Sylvia's yacht "Elysian",
from Whitehaven noted on the adjacent buoy.
Travelled a very grey, rather rolly 67 miles down to Howth. Saw Chicken Rock lighthouse about 7:30 - then nothing really till we got near Howth apart from half a dozen misty trawlers. Then thick fog off Ireland's Eye, mean viz down to about 100 yards as we conned her in by radar - trying to account for tidal set too - ah, well, more experience - and we did pick up all three buoys in the entrance.
Joined John & Chris Dolman & sons for Fish & Chips and a walk on the pier - they head back Sunday to take up the mantle at HQ.
Sunday 8 August
It
was
blowing old boots, NE 6-7 and rain with it -so turned over and had a long
lie-in.
Even most of the hardened Howth racing crews didn't venture forth.
The Pad Thai restaurant - where the old pizza
place used to be - was quite a find though - very nice!.
Monday 9 August
It's
blowing old boots, NE 5-6 and rain with it - hang on a minute haven't I said
this before? Mmmmm - a walk over Howth Head sounds a good deal better than
the heavy swell outside the harbour - ah well, roll on Tuesday.
A
nice stiff walk around Howth Head, past Bailey Lighthouse - and back to Howth,
at least exercised the crew. Overheard a foreign crew talking about "Teedvinter"
(I guess that's the German or Danish pronunciation of "Tidewinder!".
The forecast for tomorrow is much better - so Arklow is on the menu - 40 miles.
Tuesday 10 August
Awoke to blue skies and lighter winds - so fueled up and moved to sunny
Arklow. The huge cruise liner "Norway" was anchored off Dun
Laoghaire it made the HSS look tiny.
Watched about 5 or 6 large dolphins playing in the tide race off Wicklow Head on the way
- and tied up alongside the Pontoon at 3:30pm
Wednesday 11 August
Eclipse
Day ! Forecast of fresh - strong SE winds + heavy rain put us off
travelling further south. We adopted plan C, which is to return up the
East Irish coast - visiting Malahide, Carlingford, Strangford and Belfast Lough.
They lied - we had a wonderful day for weather - and not a sign of SE 4-6, nor the rain. Watched the eclipse from off Wicklow head - a great sight, but a bit over-rated by the folks who spent thousands to travel to see it - pity the ones in Cornwall who had rain at the time.
Came into Wicklow - a nice lazy, genuine holiday-type day.
Thursday 12 August
Travelled up the tide to Malahide - 27.4 miles by the log - no fear and trepidation
of the entrance now as it is extremely well buoyed.
After a brief walk around the town, returned to the pontoon to find 2 boats flying Manx flags - Charles Cain had arrived in Skeabey Ny Ton - also from Ramsey - and he felt he simply had to match our tradition of flying a large Manx flag!
Friday 13 August
Some
sailing at last! Left Malahide 10:30 - after shopping & boat scrubbing
sessions. Wind a bit light to begin with - but better to sail than motor -
and we had plenty of time.
Wind picked up squally later in the afternoon - and so we arrived rather early at the entrance to Carlingford - the ebb was still running hard - so down to the trusty Yanmar to plough us through - at Haulbowline lighthouse it was 4 knots against us.
Arrived
at Carlingford marina at about 19:30. This marina was formed by sinking two
small coasters to make a breakwater + 1 still floating - they are concrete
hulls from around the end of the first world war. It is now very crowded -
but we squeezed in!
Carlingford looks north across to the Mountains of Mourne (sweeping down to the sea). It is a busy shipping channel too. Major developments have taken place since we were here in 1997 - Pedro has gone, and a brand new restaurant has been built. Extensions to the marina itself are to start in the autumn.
We stayed all weekend - watching the local Dundalk Sailing Club yacht races, and the Carlingford Harbour fun-day on Sunday, with raft races and other hi-jinks.
Monday 16 August
Although
the forecast was still iffy, we decided to move to Ardglass. Left
Carlingford at 7:40am - and sailed down the Lough. Lost wind off Greenore,
so had to motor out - but picked it up again outside.
Travelled North East past the Mountains of Mourne - past Kilkeel, Annalong and Dundrum Bay, then St Johns Point with its yellow and black lighthouse - and into Ardglass by 13:50 - and almost the whole journey under sail.
Came
in alongside Fisher 34 "Delphis" from Milford Haven - built also by
Northshore and commissioned at around the same time as Tidewinder. As
you'll see, the iffy weather forecast was completely wrong - it was a brilliant
day.
Tuesday 17 August
Storm bound - well at least hiding from F5/6 SE wind, lots of rain, horrible
swell - ugh! Ramsey boats Sea-Pie of Cultra and Sula of Arne arrived from Howth in the
evening - they confirmed that it had been a horrible rolly run.