Making headway

- July 22, 2019

Alex at the Fastnet Rock

We awoke at 7 am, quickly got on deck and weighed anchor. We had a light westerly breeze and were able to hoist our sails and head out of Kinsale in the morning light. The seas were much calmer than the day before. It was Saturday and we wanted to get as much distance as we could muster. Sunday was forecast to have southerly gale-force winds and heavy rain, so we wanted to be tucked in somewhere safe. Our choices were Glandore, Sherkin Island, or Crookhaven. Glandore was too close so we made a beeline for Sherkin - well it was more of a triangular line as we had to tack to get there, but we were banking on a forecast southerly shift in the airflow which would give us a lift on the port tack.

The first few hours were glorious. We were heading out to sea, but it was sunny and we had about a 12-knot breeze. Aleria was happy. Soon the wind started to pick up and we reefed the main. That was a good decision. Almost at Sherkin, Alex made the call that in a strong southerly, the anchorage at Sherkin would be exposed to the swell. We couldn't really go into Baltimore with our draft so we opted to motor sail into the wind and into Crookhaven, one of our favourite harbours of refuge on this coast. It was only about two hours farther, and we had plenty of time before dark.

But before we did that, we had to do a fly-by towards iconic Fastnet Rock. We'd never gotten close as we'd always been on a mission or facing foul weather. This time, we had time, we had fuel, we had cameras, and we had interesting clouds but no rain. After hundreds of snapshots, we continued on.

As we furled the Yankee it got caught. We thought it was the flag halyard but it was the leech line that had parted from the sail. That means we'll have to take the sail down and we can't do that in the forecast winds. We've got small craft advisories for SW wind F5-6-7. It's a bit unpredictable this week.

We found our usual spot in the anchorage with a Dutch sloop anchored nearby and everyone else on moorings. We dropped anchor at 7 pm, precisely 12 hours after leaving Kinsale. It was a long day and we were tired. Two more yachts came in after us. No one ventured ashore.

Today, we have all stayed on board awaiting the gale. It started out lovely and sunny, but soon became more and more cloudy, cooler, breezier and wetter. But the heavy rain I expected has not yet materialized and the harbour is so sheltered in a southerly that we are feeling very snug. Midday, a mist and fog rolled in and surrounded the anchorage clinging to the hills.

We've spent the day writing and internetting painfully as we are having difficulty with my phone as a hotspot and Alex's phone won't charge so he's out of commission. I got all the RoRC reports in for the OCC website and managed to get those edited and uploaded. It's curious how used to technology we have gotten. I read about Elon Musk's progress on the creation of a cyborg. I am not enthused.

We'll venture out tomorrow in southerly winds which are supposed to stay with us for the next few days. If all goes well, we'll do about five hops to home: Bere Island, Valentia, Aran Islands, Inishbofin and Clew Bay. I cannot wait to get home.