Aleria's Adventures

OCC RRC Fiona Jones introducing speakers Each year now, on the morning before the Ocean Cruising Club AGM, speakers are recruited from among  members to talk about topics of interest to attendees. By lunch on Saturday, our numbers had grown to 80 and we had good attendance at the morning lectures.

The Royal Welsh Yacht Club Just before Easter this year, we packed the car and made our way to North Wales by ferry to attend the annual AGM and Awards Dinner of the Ocean Cruising Club. I was serving as Rear Commodore, web editor, PR officer,  digital communications manager  and  Port Officer for the west of Ireland. Alex is Regional Rear Commodore and Port Officer as well, so we had good reason to attend. Besides I was running for the vacant seat of Vice Commodore. Our ferry was delayed so we arrived half way through the cocktail reception hosted by the Royal Welsh Yacht Club in a stunning location, in a centuries old building overlooking the Menai Straits. 

Offshore veteran Damian Foxall discusses sustainability in sailing  In the past few weeks, we've had the pleasure of attending the Irish Sailing Cruising Conference in Athlone and the Irish Cruising Club's Annual Dinner in Killarney. At the Conference, we won a night in a glamping pod at Kilrush Marina, so we made a side trip from Killarney to Kilrush to try it out. Turned out to be great fun.

There has been an explosion of sailing videos on YouTube in the last few years. It seems that all the young people who have gone sailing are documenting their voyaging with vlogs instead of blogs, which appear to be so passe nowadays. Some have hundreds of thousands of subscribers who watch these videos that can be half an hour long. The best ones for me are under 10 minutes long, any longer and I get bored. YouTube has even created a list of top 30 sailing video channels .

View over Punta Lagoa in the Ria de Vigo. Vigo on the left. Cangas on the right.  In Spain, the winters are wet and wild but not that cold. Technically, it's possible to stay in the water and enjoy sailing through the winter months. Realistically, it can be challenging as the storms can be strong and unpredictable. The Atlantic swell is perhaps the most challenging element for overwintering, so locations with the best protection from the swell are the most attractive. We have spent a couple of winters in Spain and have checked out multiple options. We often get questions from friends about where to go. I thought I'd write down our thoughts for the benefit of those wishing to spend more than a few days or weeks in the Rias.

Buy now on amazon The editors of SisterShip held a contest for stories about cruising pets. So naturally I wrote a story about Onyx's ocean crossing. It was one of the stories selected for an anthology they just published called Voyaging with Pets. There are some amazing, highly creative and amusing tales in this delightful book. It's available in eBook format now and soon to be available in paperback.

I attended a cruising conference organised by Irish Sailing this past weekend. It turned out to be excellent. The lineup of speakers included: