A first blog from The Irish Trip. Yes, we've arrived in Ireland! In Kinsale, to be precise- rafted up to ride out the next weather system before heading westwards.
Interesting crossing. First of all a delay because of high winds on Wednesday - but this gave us a benefit of a gentle day sorting out the boat and doing the shopping. Though quite what Deaks and Susie did in Tescos for three hours I don't know. A prelude to Susie and Deaks having geeky discussions on setting up digital SLR cameras in order to film fireworks- yes, an added benefit of staying on Wednesday was seeing the final of the British fireworks championships. Quite spectacular-seeing the fireworks throguh boat masts too.
The original plan was to sail down to Scilly overnight, arriving on Friday morning, staying overnight and then off to Ireland. So off we set- of course wind from the west so some long tacks to get to the Lizard, almost visiting Fowey on the way. As we neared the Lizard the wind dropped right off, and Obi Wan gave up
steering, so we had to resort to Roger (the autopilot) and Mary ("Poppins" the nanni engine).... a "quiet" night- NOT (at least in the aft cabin) - Roger's moans and groans are very interesting. However, more than compensated for by lying on deck looking up at the stars in a perfectly clear sky - just lovely- made more special by lots of shooting stars.
Bolstered by the relatively benign weather we checked the forecast yet again and realised the horrid weather system due on Monday was accelerating and now due on Sunday. If we stayed overnight in Scilly we would end up being there for three days, and potentially in a bad storm. Ugrib showed a smaller weather system passing through on
Friday night - 25-30 knot winds at most and lasting for just a few hours and from the South- a nice beam or broad reach for us. Otherwise 15-20knot winds. So we made the decision, as we rounded Lands End in almost flat calm, to continue on straight to Ireland.
OOpss... about 30 miles out towards Ireland.. and about 11.30 in the morning, the winds started to build up to 30-35knots. Not what ugrib files showed at all. And they continued for the next 22hours, building to 35-40 knots for most of the passage, with spells of well over 40 knots and gusts up to 50 knots. Mainly from the south, so exhilarating sailing on a broad reach- other than a nasty spell in the middle where the wind veering round to the west and we bounced around with wind on the nose for a while.
I am pleased to report that Wild Bird coped fine.. at times running just under genoa, or even staysail, and surfing along at around 8 knots. I can't say the same for the crew! We were all a little green in the gills and resorted to interesting tactics to stay compos mentis enough to take our watches.
Deaks decided that it would be better to sleep on the floor.... unfortunately making this decision about 20 minutes before I decided to cook supper using "emergency rations" ( ie pre- prepared tins) which of course were in the underfloor lockers. Gynaecological manoeuvres between Deaks' legs ensued. Susie promises a suitable cartoon in due course.
Susie decided that she had to adopt psychological tactics-she became one of the main characters filming "The perfect storm"... There we were, on deck, in the dark, with people aiming wind generators and throwing buckets of water at her. Soon, someone would shout "cut" and it would all be over. Her other tactic was to regularly change her knickers (???? Don't ask) though on her last change she decided that the effort of putting the new ones one was just too much. So commando sailing became the order of the day!
When not focussing on the loo bowl, I mainly focussed on seeing how Wild Bird dealt with the weather. She was just cruising through it, hardly ever dipping her rail in the water, and cutting through some of the waves. Only splashes from the occasional wave wet the cockpit - very dry overall (apart from the rain, of course!). My only moment of real concern was the thunderstorm off Kinsale- about an hour out, we found ourselves in the midst of a big sto
rm, and once again I found myself contemplating how to deal with a lightning strike. Not to mention how better to prepare for long passages (not least checking the route in detail- not just the beginning and the end: finding two oil platforms directly en route in the middle of the Celtic sea was a bit of a surprise!)
Dawn saw us just off the head of Kinsale with the storm over and accompanied by a dolphin. Soft mist lingered over the headlands- and the wind dropped to a benign level. A lovely arrival in Kinsale.
(postcript.. and a lovely evening of calm and clear skies and a lunar eclipse....