Aleria's Adventures

20 years have passed but it seems like yesterday. I was working from home in NJ and I saw a message flash across the screen that there was a plane crash in NY. So I turned on the TV. The plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought OMG what a terrible thing - I knew people who worked there. I had been there myself just the week before for a lunch meeting. Then the second plane hit. I called Alex at work and told him to come home -- that we were under attack and had to prepare to escape. I was convinced this was just the beginning. You could see the smoke on the NY skyline from just about everywhere in NJ. I started packing our backpacks and camping gear and devised a plan to walk out of NJ to our boat in Rye and sail off across the ocean. Then the towers collapsed. Soon everything stopped. No planes in the sky, no trains, trucks, buses or cars. Silence. I'd never heard true silence before. People walked across the GW bridge, like zombies covered in white dust. That

Yesterday had to be the greyest day I've ever witnessed. Still and grey. The day before, Thursday the 2nd of September, we decided to sail out to the Inishkeas, but the wind died and we motored the 35 miles out. But not before I had to climb the mast for the first time in years. We had taken the halyards home to wash as they were green after two years in the elements unused. When Alex tried to reinstall the halyard, it got stuck and wouldn't go over the sheave. It was terrifying. At least it worked and I even managed to snap a few photos.  So we took off and headed out past Achill Island and Head to the 'deserted' Inishkeas. The last time we were there was about 5 years ago or longer. We anchored in our usual spot in a slight northerly breeze which was to be easterly and during the night did shift but less than 5 knots, so very settled conditions.  A little sailboat was anchored off the beach and there were people camping in one of the ruins. But lo and behold, two hous

To visit the Skelligs, we had to travel to County Kerry, known as The Kingdom. Ciarraige in Irish translates as Ciar's Kingdom, which has been its name since the 6th century. It's a 5-hour drive and we had to stay overnight as the boats leave from Portmagee early in the morning.  We departed from Mayo mid-morning. We made our usual potty stop in Tuam. We bought sandwiches there to have en route for lunch. We decided to stop and stretch our legs in the pretty village of Adare. The last time we stopped there was about 10 years ago. We took our lunch along to the park and sat watching people and pigeons while munching our way through delicious sandwiches. We haven't people watched in public in several years. We then decided to break up the trip a little more by walking around the town. There were quite a few people around and we even saw a wedding, which has been a rare occurrence through the pandemic years. It was interesting to note that Adare looked very different than we b