Well we’re working our way through the to do list. We got the laundry, been to the farmers market, found a tap – and fitted it (or rather them), filled up with diesel so that just leaves the dinghy and the engine service for tomorrow.
The weather is still at the top of the list of discussion points. Not so much the wind over the weekend but the rain. One minute it is sunny and the next hour it is a deluge and so the cycle goes on. We got soaked in Cork looking around the shops and again today over in Kinsale. The photo above is one of the few minutes when the sun was out - the Crosshaven boat yard marina is just up from where we are. It's certainly not summer.
The buses aren't bad over here so we've done the touristy bit. Not sure though about some of the direction signs. Have a look at the one below in Cork bus station showing the gates where the buses go from. Ok as long as yours isn't going from gate 10. Ours was! Which way? We asked one of the workers (?) and he responded "bejesus", I've not noticed that before"! A truely Irish sign.
The further west we go the more foreign sounding voices we hear – or indeed strange accents. Must be into tourist zone. Lot's sound eastern European but there are a fair smattering of Aussie and New Zealand accents. Stats show that New Zealanders are the most travelled nation on the planet, as no one else is that bothered to go 13,000 miles for a bar job. We'll let you know if gate 10 turns up.
The food is getting better (but not cheaper). Pam has at last found restaurants serving oysters.
We can certainly recommend Cronin’s in the square in Crosshaven and Fishy Fishy Café in Kinsale. My biggest concern now is what we are going to do when we leave Ireland and head south. No Guinness. I don't think I have had a bad pint in the 3 weeks we have been here. The Guinness in Scotland is not a patch on what you get here.
Tomorrow then is a day of boat fixing and a bar lunch here at the Royal Cork and then await the arrival of Rob and Tom. Looks like we will sail round to Kinsale on Tuesday morning to try a few more of the restaurants over there and look for the weather window to go across Biscay. It doesn’t look promising until at least the end of the week with two depressions bringing southerly winds. More Guinness is the upside.
XC weather and Magic Seaweed et al were all predicting 5-10knt winds from the south west (hence on the nose) for our 70 mile “sail” down to the Cork area. The local coastal forecast upped this a bit to F3-5 but dying later in the afternoon. This then was the first day for 2 weeks when the wind wasn’t to get to 25knts!
We left Waterford at 6am Thursday to get a reasonable tide down the river but it was in a downpour which then relented a bit to resemble the fine spray you get from a garden hosepipe. By the time we got to the bottom of the river (2 hours later) the rain stopped and the wind got up to 10knts from the north west allowing us to sail for the first time in two weeks. We needn’t have panicked as it soon went on the nose and decreased to 5 knts. Given the distance we had to travel it was time to put the engine on and motor into the very gentle chop and the 1 metre residue of the swell from the previous 2 weeks of gales.
By 1pm the wind started building and soon was up to 15knts on the nose. We passed John and Sue on Ellan Vannan going the opposite way (from Crosshaven to Kilmore Quay and then back home to Scotland). We passed about 2 boat lengths apart – that was good planning to be on their reciprocal course. Unfortunately they told us the wind had been 20-25knts where they had come from and that’s what we got. The last 5 hours of the trip was an ordeal of beating into a lively 2 metre chop – motor sailing – with an adverse tide.
Although this part of the trip was truly appalling, we did have the honour of nearly sailing through the Round the World Clipper fleet coming the other way. Pam insisted we tack so as to not get caught up in the middle of them.
The picture above was one of the few I took – surprising it was in focus as when I took it, it was like riding on one of those mechanical bulls – you know the ones you can only hold on with one hand and get thrown of in 10 seconds. The sea state was quite bad for someone beating into it, although the picture doesn’t do it justice.
I called Glasgow clipper on the vhf and gave them our best wishes and to say hello to Gordon. Not too sure it was appreciated although Gordon had said it would be good. It will be interesting to see if he got the message. Great to see the fleet of ten boats all together but the spinnakers were a bit disappointing!
We finally got into Cork harbour around 7pm and picked our way through the various sailing fleets racing round the channel markers. We ended up at the Royal Cork marina and tied up – and made a bee-line for the bar and two pints of Guinness. Pam is definitely off the wine now.
Today Friday, the forecast was for a depression to move north and bring F7-8 winds possible increasing to severe gale F9. All I can say is that we are having these constant reminders why we are going to Portugal. It is now early evening. The wind is F8. The rain is horizontal. 3 guys are in their 2nd hour of rescuing a rather expensive looking racing boat which has dragged its moorings into an equally expensive Niad. I think it got it’s mooring line wrapped around it’s keel, ended broadside on to the wind and 3knts of tide in the river and nothing was going to hold that.
Crosshaven doesn’t look like a bad place. I’ll give a bit more info in the next post.
It was good to get into Waterford out of the choppy waves and onto a sheltered berth rafted next to Joanna Mary. After a bit of a sleep and a wander round town we met up with Steve and Don (from Joannna Mary) for a drink. We ended up in the Munster, just up a side street from the harbour. Earlier in the day Pam and I had been in for a quick one and it was a nice quiet place. Tonight however it was heaving. The new Lord Mayor had been invested and this was his celebration party. Turns out Don knows his brother so we are set for the night.
Overnight the next weather system went through and dropped 3 or 4 inches of rain, short circuiting the pontoon's electrics including the gate locking system. So much for catching the 9 o'clock bus. The marina manager came out and with the help of one of our screw drivers managed to open the main supply box and reset the system. There was no key to manually open the gate!
The plan for Tuesday was to head down to Cork and then Crosshaven on the bus to see the clipper boats on their last stopover before the end of the race this Saturday - and of course Gordon who is on the Glasgow boat. The weather brightened up despite a good 25knt wind. We met up with John and Sue on Ellan Vannan who made it down over the weekend and had a look at the Clipper boats.
Above three of the Clippers rafted up. Glasgow is the black one hence it's referred to as the Black Pearl. Notice all the podium place pennants (the red and blue ones). Looks like they are certain of a 3rd place overall. Notice also the Saltire on Glasgow. The Royal Cork Commodore had insisted national flags must flown below the Irish courtesy flag. He obviously does not know the South African flag (see Durban next to Glasgow).
These are big boats. Erica, John and Sue's daughter had done the first half of the race from Liverpool to Australia - she was the medic - showed us round. Here is the view from the bow looking back. Pam and Erica are basking in the sunshine!
Inside it is very cramped. These are the main crew quarters with the headsails lying on the floor. Sail changes mean opening the forehatch and letting the waves crash in. Not the driest place in the world!
About 4 ish, Gordon turned up. He had been up in Cork for the day although he had been meant to be doing a full engine service. Here he is - with Guinness in hand. John's going to try and get a picture of him doing the service tomorrow - but it looked like they were having too much of a good time to bother with details like engine services.
Sounds like he has had a fantastic trip. It's going to be a shock for him when he gets back to dry land. We said cheers to him (and to John and Sue below) and headed off for the bus back to Waterford.
Just as final comment on the clipper boats, the next picture shows three more, the right hand one being New York. Dougie Gillespie is skippering this one. Some of you in Port Edgar will know Dougie as one of the instructors on the sea survival courses. He did one for some of our crew a couple of weeks before he was drafted in to take over the New York boat after the first few legs. The are now leading the field and if he gets his usual first place on the final leg will win the race. The Scots are doing well!
It's now Wednesday morning. The forecast is for the wind to drop now before easterly gales set in on Friday evening. We are going to have another early morning start to head down for Crosshaven (although it's still going to be on the nose). With a bit of luck we will see the Clipper fleet plus Ellan Vannan coming the other way!
At last a break in the weather to let us go. After a full week of strong southwesterlies, the forecast was showing only F4-5s on the nose today although increasing during the day. We made an early start and left at first light (which turned out to be just after 5am - yawn). The legacy of the strong winds though was a very deep chop in south westerly swell - bang on the nose. The tide was also against us so we were making less than 5 knots over ground. That coupled to the gale warning that then came on the radio made our minds up that Cork was not to be the target. Instead we headed off up the river Suir towards Waterford - 12 miles up river.
The wind then duly increased to 20knts, this time behind us to blow us up the river against 2 knts of adverse tide. We arrived on the Waterford pontoons around 11ish and rafted up next to Joanna Mary. Very interesting sail up river, given we were almost at low water and plenty of pilotage to do.
The shot above is the small village of Passage East on the west side of the river half way up. Seems to be the in thing these days to paint your house in pastel colours. Below is the ferry that plys itself back and forth between Passage East at the other side. The pilot book warns not to sail in front of the ferry. It's not that easy the speed it finishes loading a car and then takes off!
Waterford is an interesting little place. It took ages to find the keys to get in and out of the marina - finally found them in the City hall office (the Tower hotel is no longer doing them). Likely to be here at least two nights while the next depression blows itself out but Thursday / Friday aren't looking too bad. Not too sure however how safe it is going to be here. If the notices on the gate are anything to go by then the pontoon is in serious risk of collapsing. Surely the don't mean only 30 people can be on the pontoon at any one time?
Looking at the internet, we see Erin was leading this years North Sea race as the first boat round Sleipner A platform - with a photo showing the spinnaker up. Best of luck John.
23,571 families of midges emigrated to the west of Scotland today. Even a Tuesday departure is now looking optimistic.
Thursday moring was a bright start but as always windy. Having spent a couple of days fixing boats, we had decided to get the bus over to Wexford. Three buses a day run over to Wexford which is the biggest town in the area and the county town of Wexford county. Seems logical. Apparently it is one of the oldest towns in Ireland with a big settlement from the times of the Vikings.
The bus turned up on time at 10.30 and we all piled on (about half a dozen boaties who like us were stranded in the marina). It was a half hour run through narrow twisting lanes and given it was downwind, the bus must have been touching 50mph at times. It stopped at various villages to let the locals on for their weekly shopping trip to the metropolis. At one village, on the these "locals" asked the driver to hang on while her daughter jumped off the bus, ran over to the nearby chemist and 4 minutes later emerged clutching her mum's prescription! Priceless! By the time we arrived in Wexford the bus was packed. We were dropped off near the station and went wandering.
In the shelter of the town, it felt quite warm and we had a pleasant hour wandering down the narrow main street that runs parrallel with Wexford's award winning quay. Pam spotted a shop selling Birkenstocks (for the un-informed they are shoes that cost a fortune and come in all sorts of patterns). That lightened my wallet by a significant amount. A quick visit to the tourist dis-information office where they were selling Guinness memorabilia and handing out photocopied maps of the town centre proved fruitless. We then wandered off down the award winning quay to contemplate where to eat lunch.
Pam had spotted a nice looking restaurant in the Westgate design shop (on the right on the main street as you walk south). This was a self service affair but the food very good and the portion size very American. One seafood platter would have done both of us - if I liked seafood. Recommend the place to anyone. During lunch I suggested we go and buy a paper and then sit on the award winning quay to read it. ...then someone came in covered in rain spots. Then another...then another. By the time we finished the biblical downpour had once again commenced which put paid to any further thoughts of the award winning quay. We spent the afternoon wandering round the soggy shops and ended up in the Library on the internet before catching the bus home at 6pm. The journey back was significantly slower as the wind was on the nose. At least the bus didn't have to tack and the chemist shop was closed.
After a quick dry out on the boat, we felt it was importat to ensure Kehoe's pub had not been washed away during the day so wandered (got blown) up there for a meal and a Guiness. Pam was getting fed up paying 6 Euros a glass for red wine so switched to halves of Guinness. To be more accurate Pam was getting fed up of ME paying 6 Euros a glass. That was a result - as she declared she enjoyed it. Spain v Russia were on the telly but I saw little as we got in a conversation with Steve and Don, two guys with a big old converted wooden trawler. That turned out to be a five pint evening (conservative estimate) and we ended up back on Joeanne Mary for a wee dram. Super boat with oodles of room in addition to a bath, a washing machine and a tumble drier.
There is picture of Joeanne Mary above. They were on their way up to Poolbeg in Dublin for an old boat muster. Steve's home port was New Ross just down the coast and up the river near Waterford. The boat to the right is Moonshadow, Andres and Adrianne's boat.
Friday morning was a bit slow. The wind had slackened somewhat overnight so Moonshadow made a dramatic escape to sail over to Milford Haven. By nine ish however it had resumed it's customary F6 and Steve declined to move.
I promised some pics of the Marina. The one above shows the hammerheads with not a lot of room to get in behind Moonshadow. The one below gives a bit more of clue to what the place look like. Despite the winds it is very sheltered.
The lower photo shows how it opens up inside the pontoons. We are on the right just behind to dark boat.
More tomorrow.
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