Wednesday the 9th. Mid morning. There must have been something wrong with the Guinness last night. Or maybe it was everything right with the Guinness. Everything is still very fuzzy and the two Panadols are helping. Pam wanted me to take a picture of Rob sleeping off his hangover but I was having difficulty turning the camera on. No more Guinness for me then – until later this evening. The half bottle of Ardbeg didn’t help.
Rob and Tom turned up on Monday night – well actually it was Tuesday morning. They were due into Cork at 10.30pm but with the obligatory “budget flight late in the day 1 hour delay” and a medical emergency necessitating the flight to turn round and go back to Edinburgh, they didn’t get to Cork until 2am and by the time a taxi turned up it was nearer 4am that they got to the boat. By that time I had finished another 5 suduko puzzles including two 4 star ones in half an hour each. Rob brought the essential whiskey supplies so we hit a bottle of Ardbeg.
With Cork week approaching, the Royal Cork marina were fairly keen to get rid of us. Playing FT$E and numerous other racing machines were turning up daily so we duly obliged and headed off to Kinsale. The wind had subsided but was still on the nose so it was a beat all the way. For the first time in 2 weeks we sailed the whole way – although it was only 4 hours.
Kinsale has a couple of marinas so we went into the Kinsale yacht club one. Very helpful staff. Rafted up outside a French boat. The marina manager came down to chat and gave us all the “gen”. The day before I had tried to change the engine oil but totally failed as the suction thingy that sucks the oil out had packed in. I asked the manager where to get one. Rather than direct me to Union chandlers in Cork, he said he would get someone to pop over who could help. Ten minutes later, Aidan’s brother turns up. His name was Mark. Now for those of you who don’t know Aidan sails on Erin and is from these parts. Talks with a strong Irish accent. Well Mark sounded exactly the same. Not just a bit like but exactly the same. They must be related.
Mark sorted me out with a new vacuum pump which his mate (another Mark) brought over later that evening and then proceeded to give me a hand with the impellor on the engine which needed changing. Then for the first time in weeks, we had a couple of drinks on deck in the sunshine.
As you probably have guessed from the first paragraph, we then went out for the evening and consumed one or two Guinness and listened to some real live traditional Irish music!
Looks like the weather is opening up for a Biscay crossing on Friday. It should take around 4 days so we are keeping a close eye on the synoptic charts. That means two more days of Guinness.
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