Hauling Aleria in Kilrush
We chose Kilrush this year for two reasons: 1) it is close to Shannon Airport and 2) the operation there has become first-class under owner Louis Keating and manager Simon McGibney. It's also reasonably accessible for us by sea in a three-stop hop from Clew Bay. Being close to the airport was important as we have offered Aleria for sale. It's only a 2.5-hour drive for us now with the motorway open and that means we can drive down to show her fairly easily. The OCC discount didn't hurt either. We had a raucous delivery down the coast which I wrote about in a separate entry. Then we kept rescheduling the haulout because the weather conditions were unpredictable and pretty awful -- gale-force winds day after day and changeable forecast hour by hour. Pouring rain and lashing storms. Finally, we had one day -- one day -- when the wind would be less than 20 knots, Simon's cut off for hauling Aleria . We arrived in Kilrush around 11 am and started the final offloading of...