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 ...

Cloud bank while we were departing. Alex has finally created scheduling around his mum's care so that we can take two consecutive days off. We looked at the weather forecast and the tides, and they conspired to enable our escape to Clare Island. Just one night. Out in the afternoon on the outgoing high tide. Back in the afternoon on the incoming high tide. We were to have mixed cloud and sun and benign conditions for a whole week.  Wednesday morning I packed and provisioned. Wednesday afternoon, we took off. We had a consistent 15 knots of breeze from the WSW, enabling tacking out to the Clare. We raised the main and mizzen, then Alex unfurled the yankee and sure enough, the sheets were run incorrectly. One of those things you forget from year to year. This time it had been two years since we hanked on and hoisted sails. Same thing with the staysail. So he furled the sail and re-ran all four sheets. Then he unfurled the yankee and it was fine. Then he raised the hanked on staysail....