A Little Bit of Good Weather !

Its been a pretty poor summer - to put it mildly !  We haven't been out for more than three consecutive days all summer and shan't now.  So we seized the chance, when it came, to pop round to Ventry for a mooring and a slap up lunch.  We have also to report - but sadly no pictures - that there have been two or three Humpback Whales for four days now.  And they are still off Cloghar Head as I write this.

Here is Breda trying a knew knot on our new-ish bourding pole

                                                                 Birthday Boy.

It was my 65th birthday on the 19th of July and so, it being 65, we had a bit of a "bash" in Dingle.

A friend, Bernie, was with us that night and we started with a meal at Global Village - which was simply superb.  It is at times like this that you recognize how great Dingle is for food.  Anyway, I'll not bore you with the details because after popping into the "Droichead" to hear Eoin Duignan on the pipes for a few minutes, I met Breda and her mum going into the Courthouse Bar.  Here we had Damien Mullan and Donagh Hennesey playing away.  So, we had the birthday cake in the pub, with a small gang of us, including Helen O'Brien.

                                                                             Riggers

 Last week the riggers came to Dingle and Jill asked them to report on our boat - which they did.  It'll cost quiet a bit to replace the rigging, but it has not been done for 16 years and so could do with changing sometime.  So here are Bill and his son Gavin doing the check.


                                                           Overnight Sailing

Sam, our friend from Glasgow, who is now a qualified and experienced Yachtmaster.  He had flown over to Kerry Airport for 4 days of fun and sailing and we took the opportunity to do our first  overnight out at sea with him and Breda. Watches were organised and good food. Out on the way to  Skellig Michael we saw masses of seabirds including two Sooty Shearwater in with hundreds of Manx Shearwater. We all commented on the confused  chop and swell as we sailed out into the Atlantic.

 

Crosher after being horribly sick, resting in the central bunk!  We turned back towards Slea Head and spent the rest of the journey watching moonlight waters and phosphorescence and hearing the guillemots calling. It  was truly magical.

Dawn over Castlemaine. Calm seas, twelve knots of breeze. Autopilot, Sausage and beans with Breda's tomatoes. Malt loaf and blueberry muffins.  Coffee. A steady sail into Ventry, just for the view and then,  the wind became southerly,  a brisk series of tacks back to Dingle Harbour entrance. Back in Dingle for ten thirty with a strong wind forecast  for after midday. Safe home.

                                                         Winch Services (how to do it)
 The riggers pointed out that the winches were in a "terrible state. On a boat like this everything should work smoothly!" The next day Sam, Jill and Breda set about the winches. Once you know this is not a mega job. Once you know. Except that after the service there was  squeak on one winch and a groan on the other. Fortunately we had Sam and he fixed them both.

 Another squeak at low revs is on the brush anode on the prop. Still not sure how to adjust this.

 Two days earlier the mains electric failed to supply. Kilian, the extra marina manager, became hero for the day identifying our corroded mains plug connector as the culprit. No supplier found in town John O'Connor came up with a plug which Kilian fitted. By five pm all was restored.
Thank heaven for the Sams Johns and Kilians.
 

Here we are with our newest member of crew, Caroline with Jill.

Another one with Breda and Tony

Breda's cousin from London , Rosa.

Sunshine at last.

A Sail in the Sunshine - with 3 new recruits !

It was the first time we had been out for nearly four weeks. I was getting desperate - but, there were conditions which were manageable.  There was a strong northerly blowing but the sea was very calm on the south-side of the Dingle peninsula.  So, taking our three new-comers along with our normal two, we set off. And we had a fine day's sail with a reefed main and furled genoa.  Unfortunately, we did not see many citations - just Fungi and one harbor porpoise.  It ofter is fairly quiet at this time of the year.
But we did get out for a spin.  Needless to say, three days later we had gales and rain once again.

The Day We Saw the Warship - and the Lifeboats !

On Sunday we went out to the Skellig's once more.  We had Kathleen with us for the first time well over  year and our "regular" co skipper Breda.  It was an almost perfect day - the only thing was the lack of any wind, which meant that we had to motor all the way.
We took lots of photo's - of the Napoleonic look-out tower on the end of the peninsula, of lunch with all the flowers on it (all of which are edible) and the islands.  But the first real surprise was the naval frigate just sitting off the islands.  It was traveling very slowly around and around the islands.  It continued to do this well after we had headed for Valentia for the night and a deserved drink at the hotel there !  The possible purpose of this action only became a little clearer to us 10 days later.

The Napoleonic look-out tower.

A fine day and the naval frigate by the Skelligs

Breda on watch !

The small landing stage on Skellig Michael

Some of the thousands of Gannets on Skellig Beog

Very calm conditions

And here we are, Jill and yours truly.

The lighthouse at Valentia

 Neither of these two lifeboats are the regular one from Valentia.  She was in Southampton being fitted with the new, more powerful engine and the crew were being re-trained.

An idyllic scene

The Protestant Church on the island. A really lovely little structure from when the island was the trans-Atlantic nerve center for the first cable to be laid between Britain and the USA.

 For Kathleen ! One of her stones, with a cross!

The beautiful track down to Glenleam Gardens.

The 19th Century clock tower - and it still goes !

The next day the outer boat was heading off to the north. And here behind the two lifeboats is our yacht - Baltic Amber, with Cahersiveen and the Kerry mountains in the background. It took very competent boat handling to squeeze Baltic Amber into the corner so I was as close to the pub as possible.!

Here we are after a rainy early morning heading back to Dingle - a couple of hours away..

Amazing cloud scapes.

And 10 days later on the TV news we got a hint of what the frigate was doing - apart from simply wasting time !  You see, there was one of the largest drug seisures in Dublin.  So, it could well have been brought in around this time and  lodged in its various houses.  And then the culprits picked up.

A calm day at Charlie's Island

When we motored out from Dingle there was hardly a breath of wind but close to Charlies Island there was a two foot swell. We tied up to the buoy and Jill produced this fabulous lunch. There were birds nesting all over the Island but particularly on the cliff face - so we had a marvelous view of Puffins  and Guillemots.

This is Charlies buoy which we tied up to.

The reason behind taking this photo is that we spotted an otter playing around in the sea and this is the bast photograph that we could get of it.

These are the rocks near the island with there three holes through, this is a difficult photo to take because usually you do not see them. Locally they are known as the Cathedral rocks.

On our trip we saw lots of Common Dolphins - they were with up almost all day, with some going and others coming up to the boat.  Breada took this short video of them with her camera.

A Day Sail to the Skelligs and back.

 I feel I ought to apologies for the number of photo's that are included on this day out.  But, it was so fabulous and we took so many !  In this pic we are off Valentia Island, Bray Head.
We decided to go to the Skellig Islands - it would take us all day but the weather was good and the sea calm.
We put the boat on the auto-pilot as soon as we were clear of the harbor entrance - and of we go !  Half way across the bay a motor launch roared very close. Simon Berrow!!!  What a surprise.  We had enough wind to sail all the way back to Dingle at five knots in a lovely ten knots of westerly breeze. Berthed at seven o'clock  in time to have supper and ramble out to hear Eoin Duignan and Tommy O'Sullivan in the Courthouse Inn.

 

Jill had made a chicken curry for lunch and we ate it when we were off Valentia Island - about half way to the Skellig's. It was delicious and had all the trimmings such as raita, naan bread, red  lentil dahl and hedgerow salad.  

   And we ate it outdoors since it was so nice to sit in the sunshine.

As we approached Skellig Beag there were five or six small passenger boats which had taken tourists out to the island from Portmagee.

Here they are waiting for their passengers to have a look around.  There are no guides on the island - too early - but "beggar's can't be choosers"

Here is the lighthouse on the Skelligs.  It's a bit of a small affair really - but the island is somewhat large when you are close to it.

This is  Skellig Beag which is covered by the Gannets at this time of year.  Most of them had not started nesting yet but they are an impressive and very large seabird. We saw lots of guillemots, razorbills and puffins!

The Gannets  use up every inch of the island.  Here is one of the two arches through the island.

Breda looking out at them.  But even though it was quite warm, it was cold by Caribbean standards !

When we were on the way out there Common Dolphin's came with us for miles.  Some would stay for about half an hour and then head off, to be immediately replaced by a dozen more.  We had them with virtually all afternoon.

Here is a rather poor photo of a Minke Whale.  We saw two of them on the way back but, as ever, they are the trickiest thing to photograph.