Aleria's Adventures

 Wishing all my friends and family around the world a healthy and happy new year. Don't look back! And now, a cute kitty picture...

Galway Hookers in the Claddagh Basin 2021 Photo by Chaosheng Zhang We wish you all the best - health, joy and wealth - in 2022. May the world settle down so we can all get back underway again. And here's the story behind the making of Fairytale of New York , Ireland's favourite Christmas song. 

  Coastal waters covered in 10 US Coast Pilot books Did you know that all the United States Coast Pilot® books are available for download free of charge, as are the updated  Navigation Rules ?  The best part is that every time you download them they will have been updated from the previous editions. No heavy books to carry around, no paper to get wet. Just download to your PC or tablet and go.  The   US Coast Pilot  consists of a series of nautical books that cover information important to navigators of coastal and intracoastal waters of the US and the Great Lakes. Issued in ten volumes, they contain supplemental information that is difficult to portray on a nautical chart. Together with your nautical charts, they form a fundamental library of navigation information that will enhance your cruising experience in US waters. But beware, incomplete and inaccurate reproductions of US Coast Pilot are being sold on the commercial market.  And since Coast...

The Spanish trawler Nuevo Laredo riding out the storm near Ardnatrush Beg, Glengarriff, County Cork (RTE) Yesterday, we experienced a weather bomb. A fast developing system that hit hard and stayed around for a while. Our sailing club recorded wind gusts of more than 77 knots (143 kph or 89 mph) which is hurricane force. Lucky for us, the storm veered a bit more south than forecast, so we had a light easterly quadrant in the morning and northwesterly in the afternoon and overnight. Once again as with Lorenzo, the eye passed directly over us in Clew Bay. Storm Barra's eye passing  over Clew Bay We went to Westport in the morning and got our booster vaccinations then did our food shopping all in light E wind and showers. Then we braced for the worst as we were in the Red Storm Warning zone for the evening. We are protected from the NW by the hill behind our house and it appears there was no damage. We hope Aleria is okay in Kilrush, where strong wind gusts were recorded.  By m...

It's getting to be that time of year again, and this year, we are focusing on gifts for the sailor who just goes out and buys whatever he or she wants or likes. And we're concentrating on items available to purchase online as the situation with Covid remains fluid. So here are a few items that caught our attention. We are also focusing on high quality items that are perhaps ecologically more sound due to recycled materials or the longevity of their useful life.  1. Dalvey Voyager Compass A most beautifully engineered pocket compass. Dalvey Compasses are often given as symbolic gifts at times when the recipient’s life is taking a new direction. They can be personalised with engraving – either in the form of initials, a name, a message, or even customised with a graphic motif. 2. Sailing ship whiskey decanter and globe etched glasses An old-fashioned glass sailing ship inside a hand-blown decanter with an artistic world map engraved on the outside. Includes a decanter stand in e...

1. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome A classic series of sailing adventure stories from the British Isles in the 1930s and is still as relevant today.  The Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger) are on school holiday in the Lake District and are sailing a borrowed catboat named Swallow,  when they meet the Blackett children (Nancy and Peggy), who sail the boat, Amazon .  Uncle Jim (better known as Captain Flint) is too busy writing his memoirs to be disturbed. So the children camp together on Wild Cat Island where a plot is hatched against Uncle Jim when their hired deckhand tells them a daring yarn of his younger days. Soon their boat is on its way to the Caribbean on a treasure hunt and they come up against a shark, a storm, an earthquake, and the vilest eavesdropping pirate. The Swallows and Amazons Series Collection of 4 Books includes the titles Winter Holiday, Peter Duck, Swallowdale, the book that started it all Swallows and Amazons . Also made into ...

  Coral Reefs is an illustrated look at corals and the reefs they build around the world, as well as the causes and dire consequences of their rapid destruction. Corals are among the most varied lifeforms on earth. Bridging the space between plant and animal, these marine invertebrates serve as nurseries and homes to an abundance of fish, mollusc, crustacean and echinoderm species which find refuge from predators within their complex shapes. They share symbiotic relationships with photosynthesizing algae, which provide corals with their nourishment. Each square centimetre of coral holds captive millions of single-celled algae. This stunningly beautiful book profiles the astonishing diversity of the world's coral groups, ranging from mushroom corals and leather corals to button polyps, sea fans, anemones, and pulse corals. It describes key aspects of their natural history and explains why coral reefs are critical to the health of our oceans. Representative examples of corals ha...

  We've been using the polytunnel as a sail and spray hood drying and flaking area. We removed everything in misty weather so it was quite wet. It's convenient on a sunny day to have a space big enough to stretch the yankee out when the RTV is not in it. 

Alex and crew got Aleria down to Kilrush and hauled out last week. But they didn't get to remove the sails and take home all the bedding etc, only fresh food and dirty linens. So yesterday Alex and I drove down with the trailer in tow behind Lilly. There's a huge storm churning in the Atlantic and will be delivering waves of nasty weather to us. It was imperative to remove the headsail at least and to reduce windage overall.  We got up at 6:00 am and were on the road shortly after 7:30. Three hours later, we were on deck and working hard and fast. It was supposed to be calm and dry in the morning. It was neither. A heavy mist kept descending and ascending, while a breeze blew steadily but not too hard. We took down the headsail first, sort of flaking it on deck, then with a halyard dropped it into the trailer parked beside the boat. Alex guided the sail while I worked the winch. It was a huge messy ball but it was down. Next alex worked on the mainsail while I worked on the mi...

The cruising sphere has some sailing superheroes, none of which are represented in the National Sailing Hall of Fame in the US.  Here are a few of my favourites.   Lin and Larry Pardey Larry died in 2020, but he and Lin spent a lifetime cruising the world on their two engineless boats that Larry built himself. Lin wrote books and magazine articles at a time when journalists still got paid reasonable wages. Larry did repair work on boats to keep afloat. They sailed more than 200,000 miles both east about and west about circumnavigating slowly so they could experience the world.  https://pardeytime.blogspot.com/  Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger Beth Leonard and her husband, Evans Starzinger, completed two circumnavigations and logged more than 110,000 nautical miles. Between 1992 and 1995, they sailed westabout by way of the Panama Canal, Torres Straits and the Cape of Good Hope, and from 1999 to 2009 they completed an eastabout circumnavigation by way of all of...

Aleria is safely out of the water in Kilrush. Alex says her bottom is as clean as when we launched her. The crew are all home and I didn't have to drive down to pick them up. Ciaran drove them home. It all worked out just fine.  That's great because here's what's coming at us next week. Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be messy so we have to get down there and remove sails and cover her up before then. 

View from the dock at sunset in Kilrush I asked Alex to organise crew for the delivery. I just didn't feel like pushing through on a delivery trip. Cormac and Louise were co-opted for the trip, although Louise would have to bail out at Inishmore as she has to be at work on Monday. Ciaran Murphy, Michael Murphy's son, asked to join the crew. However, he called Friday that he'd had a car accident and would have to bow out.  They departed Friday evening from our house. It was pouring rain and had been for three days due to post-tropical cyclone Sam dumping buckets of rain on us. The plan was to head out on the high spring tide and anchor at Clare Island, then head out early for Kilronan on Inishmore. Depart Inishmore at 10 am sharp the next day (after dropping Louise off to take the ferry) to catch the incoming tide in the Shannon River at 4 pm. Cormac and Alex would take her from Inishmore to Kilrush. Aleria would be hauled Monday and I would drive down to pick them up.  Nau...

Rain, rain won't go away, raining all day long today.  Post-tropical cyclone Sam has stalled between Ireland and Greenland. Alex, Cormac and Louise are going to get mighty wet heading out to Clare Island tonight. Michael Murphy's son is also joining them. At least it's warm. Supposed to hit 21 degrees at 2 pm.  Alex has been finding false widow spiders everywhere. One was in his wallet in his pocket. One in the mailbox. And now one was spotted under the sprayhood on the boat. How did it get there? Swim? They are apparently almost as venomous as real Black Widows.  PS Murph's son cancelled. And it's still raining. 

  Remnants of extratropical Hurricane Sam have arrived over Ireland causing unusual weather for several days. It started with rain this morning, which by 11:00 am had turned into a sustained downpour. Definitely tropical in nature. Around 1:30, suddenly all the windows in the house fogged up -- from the outside! That meant that tropical air had arrived and it was colder inside than outside. Sure enough, the temps increased significantly and the humidity went through the roof. Tropical Ireland. We'll get lots more rain tomorrow and Friday and they are saying we'll potentially top it off with thunderstorms as the high pressure nudges Sam into Iceland. At least we aren't to get the full punch of a Category 4 storm, which it was as it churned in the Atlantic.  Alex, with crew Cormac and Louise, are to deliver Aleria to Kilrush over the weekend, leaving Friday evening to anchor at Clare Island. Then Saturday motoring to Kilronan and Sunday on to Kilrush, possibly hauling out on ...

Yannick Lemmonier, sailmaker from Galway, aboard his Mini.  The MiniTransat fleet pulled into Baiona, Spain to avoid heavy weather and orca attacks. The Minis were being thrown around like dinghies by the whales and apparently, the aluminium mini 650 support boat was attacked. They had a nasty go at his rudder.  Several other yachts have been towed to Baiona, a UK vessel to Vigo and a Swiss boat to Cangas. The activity of the whales is very high off Galicia, Spain right now. The current advice is not to transit these waters until later in October.  Many thanks to Rhys Walters for the report and photos. Severe weather warning for fleet Map of latest Orca interactions

20 years have passed but it seems like yesterday. I was working from home in NJ and I saw a message flash across the screen that there was a plane crash in NY. So I turned on the TV. The plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought OMG what a terrible thing - I knew people who worked there. I had been there myself just the week before for a lunch meeting. Then the second plane hit. I called Alex at work and told him to come home -- that we were under attack and had to prepare to escape. I was convinced this was just the beginning. You could see the smoke on the NY skyline from just about everywhere in NJ. I started packing our backpacks and camping gear and devised a plan to walk out of NJ to our boat in Rye and sail off across the ocean. Then the towers collapsed. Soon everything stopped. No planes in the sky, no trains, trucks, buses or cars. Silence. I'd never heard true silence before. People walked across the GW bridge, like zombies covered in white dust. That ...

Yesterday had to be the greyest day I've ever witnessed. Still and grey. The day before, Thursday the 2nd of September, we decided to sail out to the Inishkeas, but the wind died and we motored the 35 miles out. But not before I had to climb the mast for the first time in years. We had taken the halyards home to wash as they were green after two years in the elements unused. When Alex tried to reinstall the halyard, it got stuck and wouldn't go over the sheave. It was terrifying. At least it worked and I even managed to snap a few photos.  So we took off and headed out past Achill Island and Head to the 'deserted' Inishkeas. The last time we were there was about 5 years ago or longer. We anchored in our usual spot in a slight northerly breeze which was to be easterly and during the night did shift but less than 5 knots, so very settled conditions.  A little sailboat was anchored off the beach and there were people camping in one of the ruins. But lo and behold, two hous...