Aleria's Adventures

The ICC fleet anchored at Clare Island Clare Island at the mouth of Clew Bay was once the home of the pirate queen, Granuaille, otherwise known as Grace O’Malley.  We sailed out of Rosmoney in the evening with James Cahill aboard so we could be there in the morning. We had a nice early dinner with a few of the ICC crowd at the Community Centre as they serve food only until 7 pm. We called it quits early and had a pleasant night aboard.  Before the lunch gathering at the Sailors' Bar, many took in a short loop around the east end while others took showers and did laundry at the Community Centre. There weren't many people around as it was still early in the season. In fact, the Sailor's Bar opened just for us but did take in quite a few tourists as well. They managed a nice BBQ lunch with massive burgers, baked potatoes and salads.  After lunch, Carl O'Grady gave a talk about the history of Clare Island since megalithic times. He's a storyteller, not a historian, and ...

The Wests’ Awake four seasons cruise What started out as the Commodore’s bold decision to host the first western cruise in the history of the ICC, became the first cruise to suffer two years of postponement due to Covid 19. Planning cruises in the west depends on the weather cooperating, of course. Not only did the pandemic crush all plans of cruising in company, but also the changing climate has infused a measure of additional unpredictability to any planning for scheduled activities, especially in the West, as hurricanes Ophelia and Lorenzo proved in recent years.  In 2022, the brave Western contingent of the ICC took on the post-pandemic challenge of getting members out to the wild west of Mayo and Galway’s wild Atlantic way once again. The itinerary was set over a two-week period with plenty of layover days planned in to allow for weather delays. There was great enthusiasm expressed by members and up to 15 vessels and some 50 people had expressed interest in joining the two-wee...

When you haven't done something routinely for a couple of years, it takes a bit of memory jogging to get with it again. How are the sheets run relative to the shrouds? What's the sequence for turning on the inverter and charger with the generator running? And so on.  It took us a couple of weekends to square the boat for the delivery back home. Then it took several days to bring aboard all the stuff we needed for cruising since we'd taken it all off for the selling process. Of course, we forgot stuff and needed to spend a day or so on anchor in Rosmoney to find out all the things we'd forgotten.  When we finally did get ourselves settled, we found we were still missing things we used to have aboard when full-time cruising that I didn't think we'd need for a couple of weeks close to home. Reference books belong in that category We did bring loads of stuff aboard and stowed it somewhere. It was actually nice not to have to squeeze it between legacy stuff that was ...

I came across this short analysis of Clew Bay anchorages and berths by chance. Christophe the author has spent quite a bit of time exploring our environs.  Apsara is a 36 ft aluminium offshore sailing cruiser based in Clew Bay. He takes people for day sails.  eOceanic shares Navionics charts for your use online. 

Aleria in Kilrush We launched Aleria mid-May but several things delayed bringing her home.  For one, we had her brightwork redone and to do so they removed all the hardware but failed to reinstall it. So when we tried to install the spray hood, we realised there were no fittings. We had to acquire and install a new rail which, fortunately, our sail maker in Galway had enough of in stock to supply us. The snaps are still missing.  Then we had an engine problem. It kept stalling and we couldn't find the spare Racor filters. So we had to order new ones, treat the fuel with diesel bug killer, and then polish the fuel which took a couple more days. It worked! Finally, we were ready to depart from Kilrush. We arrived Saturday, the first day without gale-force winds. It was hot. Never mind that the airflow was going to be northerly for several days which would see us either motoring north or bashing into headwinds, we were taking off. Check and check. I provisioned while Alex inst...