Aleria's Adventures

Peace Bridge over the River Foyle in Derry On Friday, the Northern contingent of the Irish Cruising Club held their Autumn lunch in Derry. I had not been to Derry and have wanted to visit for ages. This was a good excuse. We have a nice new car, the drive is only 3.5 hours, and the north beckoned before Brexit. So I booked a B&B just inside the old walled city near the Bishop's Gate. The restaurant, Brown's of Bonds Hill, was on the other side of the river. What we didn't know when we booked is that Alex was going to be in agony. His back, injured when he was a young man, took a turn for the worse while he was in Dublin for his long-range radio certification class. He couldn't walk any distance and could only be comfortable while seated. So being in the car was okay, sitting in the restaurant was okay. Walking was not. But it was all worth it. Derry was a remarkable experience for many reasons. The drive up was gorgeous - a sunny but crisp day with lots o

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 unusual i