Aleria's Adventures

  The daily global average sea surface temperature (SST) has reached a record high, surpassing the previous record set in March 2024. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed the record, with a temperature of 21.1°C on 22 August, exceeding the previous record of 21.09°C. The C3S ERA5 dataset extends back to 1979. Although not confirmed yet, the anomaly has gotten even worse, and that's not supposed to happen in September.  It usually happens in Spring.  We haven't had any hurricanes in the Atlantic yet. This is so weird. But it's not unprecedented. In the historical record of the Atlantic Ocean, only two years—1907 and 1914—have featured zero recorded hurricanes. Both 1907 and 1914 occurred long before modern satellite monitoring began in 1966. Meteorologists note that back then, storms spinning out in the open ocean that never hit land or crossed paths with a ship could easily have gone completely unnoticed. Since the dawn of the satellite era, no Atlantic ...

  Russia has routinely been jamming GPS signals already. Today, OCC members shared the Nautical Almanac free to download so that sailors could have access to navigation should the GPS fail. Here it is:  https://thenauticalalmanac.com/   Download it while you can. 

  Aleria was finally ready to be launched in August. But insurance stipulated that we'd have to be South of the Bay of Biscay by September 15. There is nothing onboard as we stripped everything off in preparation for the refit and sale of the boat. We'd have to bring down truckloads of stuff, do short hops to check everything out and remind ourselves how to put things back together and sail. I didn't think we could do that and make it to the Iberian Peninsula by mid-September. It would be rushing it at best, and a schedule is one thing we've always avoided.  So we made the decision to hold off and splash in the early Spring. Then we could take our time reftting her and practicing what we have not done in five years, since Covid interrupted. That turned out to be a wise move as a series of storms plagued Biscay and Iberia in that time period. In addition, the Orcas were attacking sailing vessels off the NW corner of Spain and one of our ICC member friends was a victim. ...

OCC Roving Rear Commodores Brian and Helen Russell came into Rosmoney on s/v Helacious on Friday after visiting Clare Island. I couldn't meet them because I had to manage a changeover at our Airbnb. Alex picked them up and took them food shopping, dropped off their garbage, picked up some petrol, and showed them around town. Unfortunately for them, the weather has turned lousy, and it's raining all day today.   Fortunately for them, they are heading north, and they will have southerly and westerly winds starting Tuesday. They are meanderers who have crisscrossed the Atlantic multiple times after building their boat over the course of seven years. 

  A few weeks ago, Alex received a message from Austrian members of the TransOcean Club, of which he is a member and Port Officer for Ireland. Sailors from the continent were heading our way and needed a place to deliver a package. Could we receive it for them? Of course, that's what we do as POs.  The package arrived the day before they did. It was apparently tyres. What were they going to do with tyres aboard a boat? Alex delivered the package after they picked up a mooring at Rosmoney and did a fuel run for them. It turns out that the tyres are for motocross bikes that they carry on board their steel ketch, "La Belle Époque". That was Thursday, and we had a wedding to attend; our nephew was getting married that weekend in Tipperary, so we'd be away. But Alex invited them over for lunch on Monday. He'd make pizza. They arrived on their motocross bikes. Very cool. Seconds later, Willie called, telling Alex there are suspicious characters on motorbikes heading our...

  The Ocean Cruising Club Annual Awards dinner was held in Edinburgh this year. We flew out of Ireland West Knock Airport. A 52-minute flight, as soon as you ascend, you begin the descent. We took a bus to the end of the line, which was a couple of blocks from our hotel, the Apex Waterloo. Very easy.  The tram was also a couple of blocks away.  The first night, dinner was a lousy dinner in a tiny crammed room with no place to sit down but it was nice catching up with people we had not seen for several years, like John and Jenny Frankin, Phil and Norma Heaton, Rachelle Turk, Simon and Sally Currin, and so on. Jimmy Cornell was elected Honorary Member having done so much for cruising, like the ARC and his books.  On the second day, we visited the Royal Yacht Britannia, permanently installed on the waterfront, with a mall built around her. It was quite impressive to see and quite surprising at times. The queen and king slept in adjoining bedrooms on single beds. Quite a...