Howth
We left Ardglass on the 14th, heading south. It was clear that Tuesday would be the only
day that would be even possibly passable to head to Dublin, so we went for
it. The boat that we had been rafted
to,in Ardglass, was supposed to leave at 3AM, to make a tide window into Peel
on the Isle of Man, but they decided to stay in port, so we left first. The trip was not too bad – Force 4-5,
occasionally 6, with the seas starting out light, but eventually turning
moderate. The wind was on the nose, so
we motored the whole way, but did some motor-sailing at times to take advantage
of some slight variations in wind direction.
This leg gave Phil and Joan a better idea of what it is like
to sail up here, at least this year. No
one got sick, and we made it to Howth around 5PM. We had originally planned to go into
Malahide, but the forecasts have gotten more and more unpleasant, and it seemed
like Howth would be better protected. It
has high stone breakwaters, while Malahide is all floating docks with a
floating breakwater. Malahide also has a
strong tidal flow thru the marina, and we did not fancy dealing with high winds
and strong currents in a relatively exposed marina. So, Howth it was, and it was a good choice.
Dante Again
The trip was not without drama, however. At the entrance to Howth we furled the main
and got out the bumpers and lines, and generally prepared to enter port, and as
we did this, the four people busily working in the cockpit caused Dante’s Maine
Coon Killer alarm to go off, and he “disappeared”. One moment he was there, and the next minute,
he wasn’t. Joan was sure that she had
seen him head below, but he was nowhere to be found. We milled-about-smartly in the Howth entrance
for about 15 minutes while we searched the boat, and then gave up and said that
he would turn up. No one had seen him fall overboard, and no one could figure
out how he could have done so unseen. So
in we went.
Once the boat was tied up, the search began in earnest, and
lasted 30 minutes before we gave up and really started to worry. He was not in his regular hole, we opened up
a bunch of panels on the theory that he had found someplace new, but no red cat
could be found. Time to expand the search. We dropped the dinghy and headed back out to
the entrance to scout the walls of the port for a wet cat, while Phil went for
a walk along the walls to see what he could find. Joanie stayed on board, in case he re-materialized.
The search lasted about 20 minutes, motoring all across the
face of the harbor, up-wind and down, all the way to the beach to the west, before we got a call from Joan that he had
reappeared on-board. She had not seen
where he had come from, but it did seem to be in the bow. So we all came back, had a stiff drink, and
tried to calm down. It was a stressful
evening.
Racing in Howth
We stayed in Howth for 6 nights. It is a great location, with fantastic
restaurants, a commuter rail connection into Dublin, and a first-class marina
that is dedicated to sailboats and sailboat racing. The clubhouse is setup with large changing
rooms for both men and women that can handle large crowds, and we got to see
the operation in action during the weekend of Aug 18-19. The national championships for the RS class
of sailing dinghies was held in Howth, and the place was crammed with
adolescent boys and girls setting up boats and sailing races, and partying
every night. At the same time, a lot of
other class racing was going on, and the marina still ran its normal weekend
schedule of club races. All-in-all,
quite impressive.
Crew Change
Phil and Joan left on the 16th, and Musetta
showed up one hour later. She is not a
sailor, and she had a flight to make out of Dublin to Portugal on the 20th,
so we decided to turn the boat into a hotel for a few nights. We met with Patsy and Ray, and their friends
Pat and Noel, for breakfast and dinner, and got the grand tour of Dublin and
its environs. Quite a nice meal at the
King Sitric restaurant. The next day we
went back to Dublin and got haircuts from the eastern European place (now
including South Asian stylists, as well), and walked till we nearly dropped,
with a brief break for a local pub meals. The weather was gorgeous, with great
sun. We also looked at the sea-state
from the breakwater, and were not convinced that it was benign…
South to Arklow
After Musetta left on the 20th, we looked at the
weather and the tides again, and decided to make a dash for Arklow. It was only about 35 miles S of Howth, and
the forecasts were not challenging, and if we left around noon we should have a
good current, so we went for it. We did
a good bit of sailing, past the mouth of Dublin harbor and almost all the way
to Wicklow, before the winds headed us again, and we pounded into short, square
1-2 m waves for about an hour before we eventually made it into Arklow. We were here last year, so we knew the peculiarities
and were prepared when we found the marina basin was full. Luckily, there was a spot on the pontoon in
the river, and with some help from the guys upstream we did a nice side-slip
parking maneuver and were set.
We also saw one of the tall ships that will be partying in
Dublin this weekend. They seemed to be
having engine trouble, which was confusing, because the wind was great for a
downwind sail up the Irish sea, but we head later that they had been neaten up
in the Bay of Biscay, racing from La Corona.
Even large sailing ships sometimes find it rough.
We stayed in Arklow for 2 nights, debating where to go
next. We found another good butcher shop that cut us a nice T-bone,
re-stocked our favorite Irish whiskey, and discovered a very useful shopping
center that we missed last year. It was
also time to fill up with diesel, and with a price of 1.05/liter, we filled to
the brim. The option we eventually
settled on, before we went to bed on the evening of the 21st, was to
get up at 4AM, listen to the weather, and then head towards Milford Haven with
a favorable wind and tide. There we could look at the weather again and decide
whether to hug the coast or make a dash for the Scillies.
Kilmore Quay
Well, at 4AM, we tried to listen to the weather, but there
seemed to be some sort of radio interference, and we could not find a good weather
forecast from any of the Irish or English transmitters, so we diced to go back
to bed, get some rest, and re-evaluate.
At 9AM, the wind had definitely gone to the west (a good thing), and the
weather was clear, so the plan was revised to: (1) fill up with diesel, (2)
leave at noon, with the tide, (3) aim for Rosslare, with the intention of
spending a night at anchor there before (4) passing on to Kilmore Quay the next
day. We really did not want to slog our
way along the west coast of Cornwall, trying to time our entry into Padstow,
and then bashing back to the SW to round Land End. An overnight straight shot to the Scillies
would be infinitely preferable. And, if we stayed in Ireland we could keep the “weather
eye” on our target, by staying west, and upwind(theoretically!) of our goal
(the Scillies).
We executed the plan pretty well, except that we improvised
as we closed on Rosslare and decided to go all the way to Kilmore Quay. We were getting a good push, sailing well,
with moderate, but not difficult seas, so a few more hours to make the real
objective seemed to be a good idea.
Unfortunately, the wind turned against us, the current finally gave out,
and the sea-state turned nasty, so the last 3 hours were spent bashing to
windward. We eventually made it into
Kilmore Quay at 9PM, just before dark.
Current (revised, modified, updated) plan
We are now in Kilmore Quay, and the wind is blowing, and it
is raining. The forecasts do not appear
to be good for a passage to the Scillies for the foreseeable future. The UK Met office surface charts are showing
a string of low pressure systems rolling out of Canada, with nasty winds and
sea states for at least a week. It might
be possible for us to take advantage of short weather windows and hop over to
Milford Haven, and then to Padstow, and then down around Lands End back to
Penzance, just like we came up last year.
There are no 2-day windows apparent, much less 3-day windows, which is
what we would prefer. Maybe we will just
stay here and rent a car to do some touring for a week. At least we have good shelter, a quaint town,
and good connectivity. The kitties
really want to get back to France….
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