Aleria's Adventures

For some, the joy of sailing  has to do with the thrill of tacking and jibing around in circles for honours, fighting storms and powering through calms, then retiring to the bar to recount a victory at sea. For me, the joy of sailing comes with the thrill of sighting land and dropping anchor in a foreign harbour to find the lone stillness of remote places we have yet to explore, but not tonight. This night, our anchor grips firmly  to the sediment beneath our keel and we rock gently into deep slumber, when uncomparable peace descends, no worries about anything at all,  in the anchor we trust. 

We are conducting our Happy Hooking webinar online this coming Saturday, May 4 through Seven Seas University of the SSCA. It will begin at 1100h EDT and we'll be broadcasting from the west of Ireland. You don't have to be a member of SSCA to join in. Anyone can listen in and ask questions in this interactive online session. If you've never taken part in a webinar, it would be a good idea to test your system in advance as it requires a small download to activate. We'll be including new material from the latest edition of our book, which has been trending at No. 1 in anchoring and Top 100 in sailing books on Amazon. You can sign up online here . SEA102: Happy Hooking - the art of anchoring Speakers: Alex and Daria Blackwell Saturday, May 4, 2019 11:00am EDT Registration fee: $20 members, $25 non-members The Happy Hooking - The Art of Anchoring webinar is loaded with valuable information on anchoring tackle, anchoring technique, tying up and rafting, and anchori...

Leaving Baiona just after dawn in cold mist. We had accomplished all we'd set out to do in Spain for this year. We said our good byes to the Lagos family and to Oscar Calero and Noelia at the MRCYB, leaving them a copy of the Spanish-English boater's dictionary by our friend Kathy Parsons. Showers along the coast of Portugal.

Lovely Sheephaven Bay anchorage at Portnablagh on the north side of Donegal, Ireland Bloody Foreland Alex attempting to fish  It was a beautiful “shocking hot” sunny and still morning as we motored out of Arranmore in no wind.  What a difference from when we first arrived here. This time we could see all the perils that were invisible in the fog on the way in. Maybe it was better that way! We were now a motor boat, as we’d used the last of the promised wind. At least now we had an extra week and could take our time cruising rather than delivering Aleria to Scotland. We motored all of about 25 miles in flat calm waters past the charmingly named Bloody Foreland, all the time searching for signs of basking sharks, whales and dolphins. Alex even tried fishing with no success. Despite the glass calm surface, we didn't spy any sea life other than vast numbers of birds. Perhaps the cetaceans and the fish moved into cooler waters, as this hot weather was rather unus...