Aleria's Adventures

After several days of blustery wet weather, it calmed down today. It's the second day of 18C temps, too. So I took the opportunity to wash the two sail covers. It is a real relief to have the room to stretch out all these items. It makes such chores bearable, although I'd really prefer to move on to a smaller boat.  I also made an appointment to have our PFDs serviced. We had them in the car and when Alex pulled mine, the cord got caught on the seat and the PFD inflated. It held the air for two days which was very reassuring.  Although it was difficult to put on inflated, I managed and found it to be quite comfortable. We will drop off both of our PFDs at the Chandlery in Galway for inspection. Our lives are worth it. 

  The main sail  This year, we finally got our big shed built. It kept growing in size, but it's already getting smaller every day as we fill it with stuff from the house, the garage, and the boat. One thing is for certain, having the space to do things properly, makes it so much easier.  Take, for example, flaking our sails. We have done this on the deck of our boat, on narrow docks, on the lawn, on the driveway, none of which was ideal. The first two invariably resulted in very large unwieldy packages that often had to be stuffed into their sail bags. This year, we took the batten out and just dumped the sails into the trailer in Kilrush. We brought them home in that sad state.  Today, we flaked our main and mizzen in the shed. We swept the floor first and then were able to stretch the sails out, check them for wear, and clean out any flies or bugs. Then we flaked them in record time and in record order into small packages that fit easily into their bags.  The...

We launched Aleria in the spring, got the sails on, and never got a chance to actually sail this year. About a week later, Alex was stung by many bees and developed anaphylaxis. Luckily I had made him get an Epipen as soon as he started keeping bees. I injected the dose of epinephrine just in the nick of time -- as he became incoherent, had trouble breathing, and was passing out.  Fortunately, he revived and I observed him for the next several hours with a second dose to hand, but he fared okay. It did, however, take him about 4-6 weeks to get back to normal. Brain fog, inability to concentrate, and physical exhaustion just stayed with him. But I am glad he stayed with me. By then the weather had turned for the worst and stayed that way. Rain and more rain. Contrary winds. No weather window to bring Aleria home and no place to really sail on the Shannon. Apparently, we weren't alone -- some 86% of boats in Kilrush Marina never went out this year at all. Most had planned sailing ho...

We have not done any sailing this year. Aleria is in the water in Kilrush but we have not gotten there. The weather has been pretty miserable all of July and August is not faring any better. July was the wettest July on record, four times wetter than last year. And it's been cool. May and June were hot and dry, July and August are wet and cool. Despite the North Atlantic being warmer (4C warmer off Ireland), we've had no hurricane activity since Don mid-July. Nevertheless, NOAA and others are predicted a more active hurricane season than normal for 2023.  What's happening around the world is actually quite scary as climate breakdown is obvious now. Last week, a firestorm on Maui fanned by Hurricane Dora which is now a typhoon, destroyed Lahaina and its harbour. I so remember sitting at a restaurant sipping a cocktail and enjoying the buzz of the historic town in the 1980s. Walking over to the harbour and oggling the schooners and other classic yachts and imagining sailing...

  After meandering around the Atlantic for ages, Don has finally become the first hurricane of the season in the Atlantic. And, it is projected by Carlow Weather to head towards Ireland. Although it is expected to weaken on its approach, it may still dump a good deal of rain on us this week. And, if my hunch is right, because of the extremely warm waters off the west coast this year, it might actually strengthen as it approaches -- they've never seen these conditions before and likely no models would take them into account.  It will be the third hurricane to come to Ireland, Hurricane Ophelia (cat 3) in 2017, Hurricane Lorenzo (cat 5 at one stage but not when it made landfall) in 2019, and now Don, briefly a hurricane but now back to TS. Watch and wait.  Meanwhile, there was carnage in the 50th Fastnet Race with many yachts retiring out of a fleet of 450. Several yachts were dismasted including Tapio Lehtinen's Swan which is scheduled to compete soon in the Global O...

  After a month's delay due to Alex's experience of anaphylaxis due to bee stings, we finally got back down to Kilrush to hank on the sails and retrieve the stuck halyards. Alex climbed the mast using the climbing gear and it took a long time, not having done it in so long. But we were successful in retrieving and freeing two halyards that had crossed at the top. Phew! Then we managed to get the yankee up but Alex had forgotten to tie on both sheets, so back down it came only to go back up again. That was a lot of cranking.  Next, we did the easy sail -- the mizzen -- in case we didn't get to the main. So at least we'd be able to sail her home jib and jigger.  But we prevailed and stuck it out to hoist the main. What a beast! Getting it up was okay, getting it flaked and put away was another story in passing squalls.  We shared the drive home, both of us utterly exhausted, and Alex summarily shattered. We are most certainly feeling our age.  The next day, I had ...

We finally got Aleria into the water in Kilrush. Quite late but at least she's there. We have loads of work to do before we can bring her home. Run halyards that are stuck, hank on the sails, provision, etc. We brought a lot of stuff down, but not everything we need for the delivery.  We can't do it this week as the folks buying Ross House are here and we need to work with them on stuff. The weather has been ridiculously hot, dry and calm for at least a month. Today is the first rain we've had in ages. They say we are developing a Mediterranean climate. And it's happening fast.  We have interest in her from the broker so hopefully that will come through. She's a bit much for us to handle these days. I'm feeling my birth years and so is Alex.  We got home at 10:30 pm and it was still light. Gotta love this place.