Aleria's Adventures

Leaving Bere Island in cool misty but windy conditions We spent a reasonably calm evening at Bere Island but decided to press on to Valentia in the morning despite a continued small craft warning (SCW). The SCW was for SE winds of F5-6. Aleria loves those conditions. The day before it was for SW winds F5-6, increasing to 7 for a time and we did okay. Right from the beginning, this trip took a turn from a being a cruise to being a delivery. I don't think we've really done that before. Perhaps only the first trip up from the Chesapeake to Long Island Sound when we first bought Aleria.  Interesting - I wonder what has changed. We raised the sails inside Bere Island then sailed through the cut at Ardnakinna Point, which was not easy as the seas were pretty big outside and nasty in the cut, but it saved us 2.5 miles in and 2.5 back out around the back of Bere Island. It was about 15 miles out past the end of the Beara Peninsula and we motor sailed that part while refrigera

It was a lovely morning and we were soon underway, thinking we might stop in to Inishmurray if the forecast for a calm day proved true. At this point, it was not. Once again we were soaring up the North Mayo coast in a SE. Then we realized it was almost 70 miles to Killybegs. That's a long day. We'd have to go straight there. We passed inside the Stags on a perfect course heading for Teelin doing more than 9 knots with the current; we couldn't make Killybegs on our current heading as the wind had backed to ESE and we were hard on the wind, trimming sails to the shifts as if in a dinghy. The chop was surprisingly uncomfortable out there. It was going to be a long trip bashing into the waves  on a beat all day.