Aleria's Adventures

We finally managed to get out for a walk in between storms today. It was blustery and cold yet we decided to visit Bertra Strand one of our favourite beaches to walk in Ireland.  It has spectacular views of Croagh Patrick and the most amazing sand dunes I've ever had the pleasure to walk. The views across Clew Bay are magnificent too, and the beach is littered with lucky weather stones and fossils. We'd heard that the Strand had been hit hard by the recent procession of storms and wanted to see for ourselves.

We are wintering in the west of Ireland this year. Our boat is in Galway in the marina within the locked harbour. Thankfully we have not had to worry too much about the strong storms and tide surges we've had this winter.  Storm after strong storm, gale after gale, we've had nonstop blowing going on. And the rain - pelting, driving, and filling our rain gauge daily. Now weather has always been a subject of discussion here, and when I heard about Fifty Shades of Grey I thought it was about the Irish weather. But this year is really extraordinary. We had a wonderful summer for a change and now we are paying for it in spades. Westerly wind combined with a super high tide created a massive storm surge. The road at the end of our driveway is under water.

The cyclonic system affecting our weather today. Weather, the ever challenging concern for the blue water sailor Our sailing club cancelled racing for today several days ago when it became clear that we would be experiencing gale force conditions with periods of storm force winds from the wee hours of Sunday into the late hours of Monday.  Right now, we have driving rain and we've already had 23 mm of it.  There are sunny spells in between but the wind is relentless. I worry about Aleria out on her mooring. But she's been through worse out there on her own. The cyclonic system causing our weather is actually passing over Iceland so we are getting the southern portion of its rotation. We had westerlies yesterday and are now into southwesterlies so a big chunk has already passed by. No sailing this weekend.

View of  spectacular Skye from  Loch Harport Touching Skye in Scotland Mid-morning we headed over with the tide to mountainous Skye, which looked like the fabled Highlands to me.  This whole area was once connected to Greenland and North America at the equator.  But its peaks were formed by volcanos in more recent times. There are collapsed calderas noticeable everywhere.  Skye itself reaches up into the heavens and catches the clouds on its lofty peaks. It is spectacular, when you can see it.  Alex watching the 'cumulobimbos' The sky darkened as we approached Skye and thunder started booming overhead.  There were small lightning discharges but nothing like what happens along the east coast of the US.  A heavy downpour washed off the boat and Alex, while Onyx and I suffered down below. We were concerned about bursts of wind but it really wasn't like that. We'd never seen such interesting and heavy cloud formations at every ...