Inishmore, again

We sailed out of beautiful Smerwick, I should say we shot out like a cork out of a bottle, then the wind fizzled so we started the engine. And that would be the pattern for the entire day. On again, off again, this time with the engine. It was glorious weather otherwise but the consistent 15, gusting 30, that was promised was not to be.



Every time I took the helm, the wind picked up to a lovely 15 knots SW. Every time Alex took the helm it slowed to <5 knots.  We alternated about every 1 1/2 hours. Having left early (~07:30) we arrived in Kilronan at 17:30.

We tried to pick up a mooring but couldn't get the ball high enough to thread a rope through. Stupid design for boats with high freeboard like sailboats. So we gave up and anchored. We've seen so many people struggling with these balls. They need to provide pickup ropes. There was only one sailboat on a mooring, and one more on the wall -- the Ryan's from Galway.

We didn't go ashore, just cleaned up and had steak Oscar with Caesar salad and baby potatoes with blue cheese. We'd have another longish day tomorrow as we were trying to get as far north as we could while the southerly held. The wind was to veer north on Tuesday. We wanted to be north of Slyne Head when it did.