Aleria's Adventures

Alex and I were back to double-handing from Inishturk to Inishbofin as James had abandoned ship in Turk, opting to ride back to Clew Bay with Jarlath and John aboard Nimrod. Our sail to Bofin was quite nice despite the wind being southerly as we headed south.  Our dinner on Bofin was scheduled for Murray's Doonmore Hotel Bar and Restaurant. We had ordered a water taxi which was fortunate as conditions that evening were to be a bit boisterous. The ferry captain's son, Charlie, was our driver. He had a brand new boat that was perfect for the task and another friend assisted people in boarding and disembarking. What a nice young man he is, and a very pleasant and informative skipper.  We walked up to the hotel early as our dinner was scheduled for 6 pm. We convened for drinks at the bar, met up with some new attendees arriving by land, and then shifted to the event room at the back of the hotel, which is a labyrinth of corridors leading every which way. We occupied several tables

Weather passing over Kilrush After we returned from Spain, we spent weeks emptying our personal possessions from Aleria , our Bowman 57, as we had decided to put her up for sale. Fifteen years of accumulated stuff had to come off, ferried by our launch, get washed/cleaned, and stowed somewhere in the house or garage. It was a huge undertaking. Art had to come off the walls, etcetera. Of course, when the art was removed, the walls were discoloured. So we had to paint. I taped and Alex painted. Then I removed the tape and cleaned. All this time, the weather was awful. Wet, windy and cold. We watch the Atlantic storms, especially late in the season, which October is in Ireland. We were watching hurricanes closely, and then noticed one form in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa and once again, like Ophelia two years ago, start spinning northwards instead of west across the Atlantic. It had never happened before Ophelia and now we had two named storms in two years heading straight