Simon and I are currently motoring from Youghal (pronounded "yawl") to Kinsale; we left Dungarvan harbour this morning, and had to stop for diesel in Youghal. Eric and Babs decided to jump ship and explore inland; they will meet us in Kinsale later this evening (probably quite late...)

My last log was written on the 20th, as we were making our way from Arklow to Kilmore Quay. Yesterday, too many things going on to log. There are 4 of us on the boat, and it seems like we are always doing something, which makes it a little harder to block the time to log. I've started doing it at sea, which until know is working quite well! The hectic pace is not the only thing slowing the writing process.... the availability of an internet connection, or the lack thereof, is making me think things like "I'll write a little later, since afterall I can't update the web page until I go to a web cafe..." Not good...

Back to the log. Two days ago, after the last log, we finally arrived in Kilmore Quay, around 9 PM.

The view just before arriving in Kilmore Quay

We moored the boat on instructions of a old Irish seaman, who greeted us with a thick, friendly accent. Told us which was the best pub in town. We were sitting in front of our Guiness in 20 minutes flat. The pub is opposite the church, and was everything we expected it to be: a real warm, friendly pub filled by an excellent looking crowd of all ages. After the pint, we headed back down to the boat, and had a most excellent dinner: Eric filleted the 8 fish we caught that day (4 mackerel, 4 whiting), and Simon cooked some rice, make a hollandaise, and took care of poaching the mackerel and frying the whiting. Cracked open a bottle of champagne! "To Ireland!"

The fish

The harbour at night

The following morning we got up early, headed for the showers, bought some supplies, and we were off by 9:45. The weather is quite extraordinary these days: full sun, very little wind. We had to motor until about 3 PM. The wind then picked up, and we had terrrific sailing conditions practically all the way to Dungarvan.

Fields in Dungarvan bay

Quick note about the Irish: they are VERY friendly; it is such a treat to meet people who clearly want to go out of their way to be of help; we arrived in Dungarvan, and moored on the little pontoon on the town quay. The pontoons are accessed through a gate, for which we did not have the key. As we arrived, a couple of rowers, Jim and James, were leaving and within 5 minutes told us all we needed to know about 1) how to get the keys 2) how good this mooring was and 3) what restaurants they recommnended. ("The Tannery" was their top pick - we tried, we liked!)

After an excellent dinner, a good pint, we finally went to bed around midnight.

Overnight, the boat grounded. This is not as bad as it sounds, actually, it was planned and it allowed us to have a nice, steady sleep; the pontoon in Dungarvan harbour dries up at low tide, so around 11 we settled in a nice soft mud. This morning we had to get up early in order to have enough water to get to sea - otherwise we woud of been stuck in the mud for another 8 hours. Left the harbour at 8:15.

As I type we are doing 3.5 knots, the motor is ticking away, I'm logging and Simon is reading. I'm having trouble with my digital camera these days, so I expect I'll be posting a few less pictures. It has actually nothing to do with the camera, but with iPhoto, the application I'm using to manage my pictures... (I updated the operating system in Dun Laorhaige, and since then things aren't as smooth as they had been. That will teach me to do that when everything is working fine!)

Should arrive in Kinsale between 10 and 12 tonight.
6:23:08 PM    
comment ()

Things to read

Map