Delivery of Aleria to Kilrush

- November 01, 2024

Approaching Bofin over Connemara

This week, the forecast was for a full week of settled weather. There would be little wind so we knew we'd have to motor a lot. We've had strong southerlies, making it almost impossible to head south along the coast to County Clare. We'd have some swell but the temps would be in the 50s (10-13C)

We elected to leave Tuesday. I'd provision on Monday and we'd go aboard in the morning, settle in and leave around noon when we'd be close to half tide rising. Clew Bay was fine. We saw seals in the mussel field. I was able to make lunch in the lee of Clare Island. We'd be able to make it to Inishbofin before dark. We had a 2.5 metre swell but it wasn't that bad in Middle Ground. Sort of washing machine-like motion. Alex took a Bonine in time. About 4.5 hours later we had arrived. Day 1 went according to plan.

Our night in Bofin was uneventful, except it took us two attempts to anchor. We did not go ashore. It was misting and very grey so darkness came early. We had a nice dinner of prepared chicken tenders, salad and potatoes.

We got up early for the long transit to Inishmore. At 6 am it was still dark so we delayed getting up until 6:45 when a glimmer of light appeared. We had breakfast and got underway by 7:45. The anchor had snagged a huge chain so Alex had to retrieve it with a boat hook. Fortunately, it was flat calm. Outside High Island, the sea was confused, so it was uncomfortable for the first couple of hours. The tides would be favourable even if the weather was dreary. I managed to make 'Oodles of Noodles' for lunch. They went down well. The second half of the trip was benign with flat seas as the tide had turned. No wind and no rain but mist or fog (Mister Fog). It wasn't cold, it wasn't too wet. But it was dull. And boring. Sometimes boring is perfect. Don't like drama. We arrived at Inishmore well before sunset and settled in. It was grey and drizzly, but not cold.

I warmed prepared pot pies in an improvised Dutch oven, with one pan as the lid covering the other. It worked well. Sometimes motoring is a good thing. The fridge was cold and the water was hot. We took showers with lovely hot water. We slept well again and woke up at 6:30 prepared for the longest of the 3 days.

We knew the tides would be against us as we left but not too bad. We'd arrive at Loop Head at about half tide and ride the tide into Kilrush. What was remarkable was that as we left the Aran Islands, we saw more wildlife than we'd seen for a long time. We saw a huge pod of porpoises travelling, multiple pods of common dolphins, and many birds including gannets, shearwaters, gulls and shags. It was encouraging because on our trip up we saw almost nothing suggesting there had been a bird flu collapse and worse.

For the last hour, we were doing about 11 knots which got us in much earlier than expected. By 3:30 we were tied up in the marina on hammerhead 3. We had plenty of light left, so we went about getting our sails down as it was flat calm. They were wet and disgustingly full of flies. We unfurled the Yankee and let it dry. We took down the main and swept the flies off. Then we flaked the main on the dock and made a reasonably good bundle. We took the pile of Yankee up to the office deck and flaked it there under street lamps. It was Halloween and fireworks were going off. I didn't want to chance going into town so I cooked tortellini and we had a lovely wine aboard.

We arose fairly early having gone to bed early, and started packing. The Customs boat went into the fuel dock so we had to wait for their departure. We packed the car full of sails, bedding, clothes, towels and food remains. Lilly can hold a lot of stuff. Thankfully, Alex had driven the car down last weekend so we didn't have to take buses to get home. We were actually quite happy with how much we had accomplished. We never thought we'd get so much done. It was exhausting, but rewarding at the same time.

We topped off the fuel and hauled the boat. So we drove home satisfied that we'd done our best. And we discussed things that need to be done over the winter with Steve and Kate. Another weird season closed out successfully.

Now to tackle the mountains of laundry, filthy sails, damaged sailcovers, and a dodger that's falling apart.