Aleria's Adventures

When boats were built of wood, they naturally deteriorated and eventually decomposed when their useful lives were over. But with the advent of glass reinforced plastic (GRP), aka fibre reinforced plastic (FRP), when boats reach the end of their useful lives and maintenance becomes too arduous, it becomes difficult to find a solution for disposal of the GRP which does not break down. At some point, boats are of such little utility or monetary value that they are not worth the cost of upkeep and storage. Boats are often dumped once the cost of disposal exceeds the resale value.  So what can you do? In many places, there are salvage operations that will dismantle and recycle vessels. Used boat part dealers may accept your old vessel for its parts, which they resell. Each dealer has its specific requirements for the length and type of vessel they will accept. Some dealers compensate the boat owner for the value of the useable parts minus the cost of dismantling the vessel and ...

All of Europe, including the UK and Ireland, have been experiencing a heat wave this week. Whereas the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and elsewhere have shot up into the 40s, Ireland stayed in the 25 to 30C range. Thank goodness. We only hit 18.5 yesterday and 23.5 on Sunday, 25.1 on Saturday, 20.7 on Friday and 19.3 on Thursday. That was quite the change from the frigid temps before.  I should have gone out to Aleria and put a coat of the wood skin on the brightwork, instead I've been lazily tending to the gardens. I also got out in the kayak again finally.  Why couldn't this weather have come while we were out sailing? It would have been so welcome. 

  We dropped the mooring and headed for home. We could either stop at Clare Island to await the tide or head into Clew Bay and drop anchor for a while. We opted for the latter which would give us a chance to tidy up before heading in around half tide. We had a lot of packing up to do. There have been reports of the ferries seeing many basking sharks in the Middle Ground lately, so we kept a good lookout but did not spot one.  We dropped anchor off Inishoo. Two fishing boats were milling about but it did not look like they were doing much catching. As we tidied up, Alex dropped a hook in the water but soon lost interest when nothing bit.  It's astounding how small Inishoo has become. It seems it shrinks every time we pass by it. Soon there will only be a shallow and Inishgowla will take the brunt of the Atlantic storms.  It was blowing much harder than predicted so we moved inside Inisgowla for more protection. There we wiled away several hours. I read Chris' memoir w...

Our return journey was easy. A few hours back to Bofin, then a few hours back into Clew Bay with a stopover to await the await the tide.  The sail over to Bofin was pleasant enough. We had mostly westerly winds. It was still chilly but at least not wet. We managed to avoid most of the rain showers surrounding us. Several visits by porpoises made it exciting. Sadly no basking sharks, dolphins, or whales.  I really appreciated it being uneventful.  We arrived at Bofin well before dinner time, picked up the ferry mooring which we've been offered by the ferry captain, and decided shore leave was in order, this time to Day's pub. We ordered drinks and I had pizza while Alex ordered the obligatory burger. Who walks in but our neighbour and friend Boru Dowthwaite? He was helping to bring X-rated home from WIORA in Kilrush. What a nice surprise! The music was a stage performance of  '70s country rock so that was good. The place was full on and the staff was working hard mid-...

We had a leisurely start in the morning on the 29th of June, my 68th birthday. (How did I ever get this old?) Alex made breakfast and gave me two books to celebrate: Chris' new memoir and a polytunnel book, wrapped in kitchen towels. How thoughtful. No waste.  We knew it would take us about 7 hours to sail over to Inishmore in the Aran Islands, but the later we started the more settled the seas would be according to WindGuru. We left at about 11 am. The wind was still gusty and the seas were still very lumpy, especially between Inishark and High Island. It never really got much better, so we were glad the others didn't sail. The highlight of the trip was a sighting of small porpoises.  As we approached Kilronan, two other yachts came into view crossing from within Galway Bay. It was Aniar and Gaia sailing over from Rossaveal. They picked up moorings while we dropped anchor. The wind was northeasterly and it was not really pleasant. Another ICC boat came in and went into the pi...