Aleria's Adventures

Aleria in Kilrush We splashed Aleria in Kilrush over two weeks ago now. Actually, it was July 10. We had intended to go down once more and clean her up some more, hank on the sails and dodger, finish cleaning below and servicing the generator, before bringing her home in a 2-3 day passage.  After 9 days of temps in the high 20sC low 30sC in the shade, the weather has broken and today it is cool and raining. What a relief! There's a status yellow alert for rainfall and thunderstorms but I don't think we are going to have them. Ours today is a gentle rain. Ally and Gilly came by for lunch after visiting at Ross House and we were able to sit outside but on the porch avoiding the sprinkles.  I'm sure I am going to miss the incentive to go swimming and kayaking on the Bay but not the exhausting heat, and catching up on the gardening and the polytunnel will be useful. And of course, a weather window to bring Aleria home would be welcome. There has been little to no wind, and

PredictWind Tracker with OCC Atlantic Crossing Fleet 22-07-2020 As the situation eases in the Atlantic with most cruisers having reached their destinations in Europe, America and the Caribbean, we find ourselves with a little more time on our hands. The Pacific fleet is in capable hands. So I'm wondering now what to take on next. I have to write up the pandemic response of OCC for the ICC Annual and the OCC Flying Fish. We're also going to write up the new PredictWind tracker software that we got to beta-test in the fleet. But what next after that?   There are more than 15M confirmed cases of coronavirus in the world. More than 4M and climbing fast in the States. Ireland is number 56 on the list with only 25,800 cases confirmed. But we are not launching Aleria this year. As the sole carers for Alex's mom, we cannot be away for even the three days it would take to bring her home from Kilrush. Pantaenius which has insured  Aleria since day 1 decided to jack up our rates thi

Heading out the inlet at Ross We haven't been able to sail since we can't launch the boat -- it's about 3 hours away in another county but we're only allowed to travel 20 km or within our county. But the weather has been amazing. Calm, warm and dry for weeks. So I've used my kayak quite a lot lately. It was my Christmas gift from Alex a year ago. Clew Bay is such a wonderful place for small boating. We have 365 islands to explore. Pristine water,  lots of birds, surrounded by mountains. Plenty of Blue Ocean Mind Therapy  where the mountains come down to the sea. I tend to stay in our inlet but have been venturing farther out lately. I think I will get brave and go out to Inishdaff one day. I just love stopping and watching the sky go by. I love spotting birds I might have missed while out in the powerboats or hearing lambs bleating and the cock crowing on the shore. It's really calming and normalising to be out there at one with nature. I wouldn't w