A Sailing Holiday – Wrap-up

The planned holiday this year was for K and I to take Blue Opal to Ireland’s south coast. Initial passage planning had us going Dun Laoghaire, Greystones, Arklow, Kilmore Quay, and day-hopping west along the coast. After asking around about cruising the coast, the plan changed to Greystones, Arklow, Kilmore Quay, and then push for…

We spent several days in Arklow, weather-constrained. It’s a small town, with a very busy shopping centre (at least on rainy days). The Kynoch’s walk (archive) is quite nice – starts at the shopping centre, goes past the marina, and then goes north along the sea wall, through some bushes/trees (with fairy doors), and back…

The original intent of this leg was Arklow to Kilmore Quay, but the forecast wind didn’t go as far into the west as expected, and the sea running up the coast was not pleasant. We left Arklow around 10 am, aiming to catch the south-bound tide from Dublin, shooting ourselves around the corner. Unfortunately, the…

We’ve made it to the south coast! Only two days after we planned to be here, due to weather conditions. Up at 0600, leaving K to snooze some more; up anchor and motored over to South Bay to drop the hook again in calmer waters and get a few more hours of sleep. Chatted with…

Saturday Weather has helped us decide to stay in Kilmore Quay over the weekend; we’ll tank water and diesel before moving onwards, and onwards is currently aimed at Glandore (may as well get as far down as we can, if we can). Kilmore Quay facilities are small, but perfectly fine for a small visitor contingent.…

After a few days of pottering around in Kilmore Quay, we decided to push on for Helvick, en-route to the Crosshaven area. We wanted to be outside of Kilmore Quay by about 1300, but needed to visit the local hardware and marine store first. The bill stung a bit, but I came away with two…

Up at sparrow-fart time after a creaky night at anchor; left K sleeping in the berth while I enjoyed the sunrise and the early morning light (but not the chill). The wind had died off nicely, and it was a relatively calm morning. It was a run out of the bay, with K at the…

Not up at sparrow-fart time today; indeed a lazy start to the day with scrambled egg and fresh rolls, followed by getting the dinghy inflated and set up so that we could go explore the small estuary of Rinagabella. K helmed us upriver, and we caught the flood as we went. Once we were around…

Castlepark Marina claims (archive) to be a 4 Gold Anchor marina, based on the rating system (archive) operated by the Yacht Harbour Association. However, it turns out that rating system is self-assessment based, and while it’s reviewed by the YHA, I doubt they visit every marina. So, even accounting for COVID-19 issues causing them to…

Friday The wet and windy weather has arrived in Crosshaven, and I’m grateful that we’re on a safe berth. The wind is not strong here, but the rain … well, we need to go grocery shopping, and we will have to wear our sailing gear to do so. A slow day overall, rain coming down…

Awake at 0530, drowsing in the bunk until 0615. Slack water was around 0600, and as forecast not a breath of wind was around. Made a cuppa for K and I, disconnected shore power and the springs, and made ready to slip out of the pontoon and away. Fish were splashing at flies on the…

The anchor held well overnight, nary a peep from the anchor watch in OpenCPN. I was up at 0530 because I was awake, and watched the sunrise while trying to hook up a flopper stopper. Alas, while the wood is of good size, the weight on it was nothing like enough to counter the buoyancy…

The forecast easterly came in on schedule, but stronger than was in the forecast. Awake at 0400 from the bouncing of the bow; the kedge which had been holding us straight on to the easy swells before midnight now held us slightly sideways to the increased short swells coming in with the easterly. Went up…

We discovered this morning, while checking out the shower facilities, that Dunmore East also has two Speed Queen washers and driers; 2 euro per machine per cycle. So for 8 euro, we washed and dried a whole IKEA bag worth of laundry (the bag that goes on the trolleys, not the open bag). We picked…

Our stay by little island did not get off to an auspicious start. Around midnight, as the ebb current got stronger, I woke to hear the sound of chain grinding. Worrying that we were dragging somehow, I went up on deck to feel the anchor chain and look at our position. What I found was…

Well, this is the leg that says “yes, the sailing holiday is drawing to a close”. Scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, and then away with the ebb tide down the Suir and Barrow to the estuary. Clocked 9 knots over ground at one point. We stopped for lunch off of Dollar Bay – gnocchi…

Saturday Slept in today, 0730 wake up call from harbour noise and bright sunshine through the hatch. Tea brewed up, and a batch of K’s biscuits in the oven just gone 0800. Showed our neighbour in the Degero (called Tom Bombadil (the boat, not the person)) how to turn his new bow thruster on and…

The passage plan for today called for us to slip from the dock at 0730, and catch the eddy tide along the shore to Carnsore Point so that we arrive by about 0940 for the flood tide. We want as much flood as we can get, so that we can get to Arklow quickly. About…

Late start to the morning, but we had no great urgency since it’s less than two hours from Greystones to Blue Opal’s mooring. We went ashore, paid for the berth, had hot showers, and went over to La Creperie for breakfast. Nice galettes. We were away by noon, and immediately faced into a sea being…