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.

Holding Tank and Bilge Pump !

We've had to fit one or two things to the boat this week.
The first piece is the holding tank - and this unpleasant job was the first thing Breda and Jill tackled.  And it was a success !  Anyway, it was successful.
       Next came the speed seal cover on the impeller, which cools the engine. Took about an hour.
Then the real job.  They took out the Ebespacher diesel heater because it had a fault and would not heat the boat.  This is important because we use the boat as a sort of flat in town !  They eventually got it out and sent off to County Cork by courier.  A couple of days later it was back, fixed and serviced and the two women installed it.  Works perfectly.

 Making up a grab bag for taking into the life-raft when we abandon ship is not the happiest thing Jill has ever done - but it needs doing.

The Grab Bag is almost ready !

                                                  The Liferaft fixed to the back of the boat.

 Now there is only the wind transducer to be brought down from the very top of the mast to be repaired ! We await a calm day with some men around to do that.

                      The First Trip of the Year

This was the first trip of the year – and the weather was unusually mild for it.  We just made it the “shake-down” cruise to iron out a few things and to make our new crew member welcome.  There were four of us on board and the boat handled very nicely, putting in a good tern of speed with the wind abeem. We were planning to stay at sea all night and travel way beyond the Blaskets - but, when we were out there there was a strong wind blowing and so we decided that the wisest thing to do was to put in to Valentia for the night.

When we arrived at Valentia it was eerily quiet in the marina.  No other boat there, no electricity, no water etc.  We asked at the hotel and were told that we had arrived too early in the year. It all would be going on – but not until Easter !  No matter – we had all our food, drink and wine with us !.

I met an old friend called Eddy who I last saw 11 years ago.  So, his wife and two children were all new to me and I saw some of the alterations he has done to his house over the past period of time.  Then it was back to the boat before nightfall and have a scrumptious dinner on board. 

I’ll skip over my falling off my bunk, getting trapped on the floor and having to be pulled and pushed out at 3 in the morning ! 

The Skelligs

 

 

A Day Out from Dingle - Sunday 15th April 2012

We are now on our second trip out - calm seas and lots to look at !  We decided to motor out to An Tieracht and get the new crew member used to the boat.  Soon after setting off from Dingle we saw two Minke whales and then the common dolphins joined us.

A Common Dolphin with Breda - our regular crew and co-skipper.  She spent an hour on the fore-deck watching them.

More Basking Sharks.  There were about 25 that we saw on the south side of Great Blaket island.  As you may know, they are very tame and will swim right up to the boat.  As this one does here. Our new member of crew thought that his "ship had come in" because he saw two Minke whales, fifty common and one bottle nosed dolphin, a porpoise, and over 25 basking shark - plus puffins !   But it was very calm and we motored all the way out to An Tieracht - which we decided to leave until another day.  Don't want him to see the lot on one day !

 And here we are with the dolphins still swimming along with us.   And sunshine too and its only April!