Week 7
| Date | Blog Entry | Related Pictures |
| 09/08/08 |
Still in Howth with fairly strong winds
forecast preventing a crossing to Holyhead and also a passage
further down the coast between the Arklow banks which would mean
wind over tide causing a lumpy ride. Howth has been quite a good
place to be stuck although I would rather not be stuck at all,
but the marina is well sheltered and is not far from the shops
or from the centre of Dublin which is only about 15mins on the
train. There is also lots of sailing going on each day including
the Howth 17's World Championship, the Howth 17 is one of the
oldest one designs in the world and this years championship was
quite interesting with variable conditions each day and even an
ambulance being called for the last race! Luckily no one was
seriously hurt and the injured crew insisted to sail on despite
a broken bone to take line honours in the final race and in the
end the Cup, that is some dedication that skippers like to see
in their crew! Something interesting is that it has rained at least once everyday since we arrived in Ireland, I keep thinking 'I bet this is busy in the summer...'. If there's anyone with a some high pressure for sale let me know I may be interested... |
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| 07/08/08 |
The low cloud was still about as we left
Carlingford Lough but as we got further out to sea it cleared to
reveal the spectacular Mountains of Mourne running down to the
sea. With between 15-20knts of wind on the quarter Padiwak was
flying along surfing in the waves. We averaged out at about
6knts but when surfing we regularly clocked 8knts, it has been
one of the best days sailing so far flying down the Irish Coast.
The coastline is quite interesting with small islands extending
out, the larger islands of Lambay and Irelands Eye are
closer to Howth which offer shelter in onshore winds. We sailed
past Malahide and dropped the sails just at the harbour
entrance, once moored the wind seemed to increase so it
seemed as though we just got in in time. Howth is quite a large
private marina run by Howth Yacht Club (HYC) which is a very
active sailing club both in dinghies and yachts, with excellent
facilities and great sailing waters. With the current forecast it looks as though we could be here for a few days, there are a couple of options from here, one is to cross over to Holyhead or the other to carry on down the Irish coast. With the westerly winds at the moment the second option is looking more favourable. Thank you to HYC for all of their help and for the free moorings, have a look on HYC website for more information; www.hyc.ie |
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| 06/08/08 |
We set off at about 10.00 to catch the tide
down to Carlingford, the weather was pretty horrid with lots of
rain and not much wind. After about an hour out of Ardglass a
message over the radio of reports of an object about 25ft long
floating just under the surface outside Arglass harbour, luckily
we didn't manage to see it but later reports seemed to think
that it was a catamaran which had gone missing off a beach a few
days earlier. We kept pushing on not seeing much of the coast
with the visibility being down, occasionally the odd fishing
boat would emerge and pass by. The entrance to Carlingford Lough was great with about 2knts of tide underneath us we shot up the meandering channel and headed for the marina at Carlingford. Once in the marina I can say I was a little disappointed. The actual pontoons are quite run down with lots of loose boards and fittings and although the marina buildings are quite recent the facilities aren't brilliant. You wouldn't mind if the rates where cheap but I was charged €30 for one night. This is probably the most expensive place to stay so far, not the best welcome to the Republic of Ireland but there you go at least we will only be here for one night! Tomorrow we will be heading for Howth which is just outside Dublin, I haven't got many pictures from today as the with the rain I didn't want to get the camera out so the pictures are of Carlingford Marina entrance which is probably one of the interesting ones so far and a couple of other various photos. |
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| 05/08/08 |
We are now in the South of Northern Ireland
in Arglass Marina, the day down was mixed with wind one minute
and none the next. One thing that was pretty much constant
throughout the day was the drizzle, we again made good time
assisted by the tide running down the coast. Towards the end of
the day and for the entrance into Arglass the sea had got up and
became quite confused with a northerly and a separate easterly
swell mixing together. We surfed into the harbour on the waves
and followed the channel into the marina. Its a lovely harbour
with lots of character and everything you need within walking
distance. Where we are at the moment it would make quite a good place to sail across to the Isle of Man but with the unsettled forecast I think I may be able to get over there but then maybe stuck for quite a while waiting for the right winds to come down to Holyhead so at the moment I think the best plan would be to go as far down Ireland as possible and then to cross over the weather is ideal. Later that evening the drizzle continued but more worryingly a large amount of fog rolled in descending the marina into very poor visibility. Luckily it looks as though it is lifting at the moment and Padiwak is all fuelled up and ready to go again about 30miles down the coast to Carlingford Lough in Republic of Ireland. Thank you to all at Arglass marina for their help and for the free moorings. |
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| 04/08/08 |
Another fairly simple passage today down to
Bangor Marina in the outskirts of Belfast Lough. The great
advantage of coming down the Irish coast is that you can take
nearly 7 hours of fair tide during a passage, this is great as
it means you can be scooting along at over 6knts. The weather
was very nice with wall to wall sunshine until we arrived in
Bangor where it started again to cloud up and rain began
falling. The only problem was there was no wind at all so
Padiwak became a motorboat in the glassy seas. It is quite an
interesting coastline and there were lots of other vessels
mainly heading south. Coming into Belfast Lough it was very busy
with ferries darting about with the most worrying being the fast
catamarans which are capable of over 30knts. There were lots of
ships all anchored up, they were probably waiting for their
berthing times. One of them in particular I had been watching
for a while as it was directly on the boats bearing to Bangor,
all the while I could see it was anchored and not moving. As I
got close and intending to cross a little way in front of him I
notice he had suddenly developed a bow wave, a quick turn of 90
degrees sorted this out and we passed close behind his stern.
I'm sure the skipper had watched me coming and just timed his
departure accordingly....... Bangor was very easy to enter and the facilities are very good it even has a bath which is quite unusual. I was quite interested in the funny shaped cleats which when saw the first one thought 'corr something hefty must of bent that!' I then realised that they were all like that, it was the first of them I have seen so far round Britain. The weathers looking a bit better for tomorrow in the way of wind so we're going to aim for Ardglass Harbour. |
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