Aleria's Adventures

We were back to Kinsale for the second weekend in a row, this time for the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) Irish Dinner. It coincided with the Cork/Kinsale Jazz Festival, so we made a long weekend of it. Nearly 70 members and guests arrived from all corners of Ireland, including as far off as Norway, France, England, Panama, and the US. Just about everyone had another reason for the visit and used it as an excuse to come to the dinner. The weather had been awful during the week, with torrential rainfall on some of the days. But it was promised to clear up for the weekend and, by golly, it did as told. We arrived in Kinsale and checked into our Airbnb at about 7 pm having been delayed by bank holiday traffic. The Trident was booked out early; it was fine, as we had stayed there the weekend before. Our Airbnb was right behind the yacht club so we couldn't be better located. I had reserved dinner at Cru which turned out to be as good as the Black Pig. We had two starters and split one...

We've been to Kinsale in County Cork several times by boat and we love it there. This time we went by land, driving there via Kilrush in County Clare where our boat is on the hard. It was an Irish Cruising Club (ICC) Committee meeting and Alex is a member. I'm a member of ICC but not on the Committee so I get to tag along without having to work. Aleria with Lilly our new VW Passat Estate (2017) Aleria was just fine in Kilrush, propped up nicely and firmly against the shed. Alex hooked up electrics while I scraped the few barnacles off the prop and bottom. They came off so easily. We shortly continued on to Cork and got stuck in abominable traffic trying to get through the middle of the city. I was driving our new used car - an amazing VW Passat Estate. It was the first time I've driven in city traffic in many years. We checked into the Trident Hotel just in time for Alex to make his meeting. Dinner with Maeve and Adrian Bell was a joyous occasion at the Black ...