Vicki's Birthday and Cape Clear island .. Part I

Wallace's Sailing Adventure on "Arbella"
Mike and Vicki Wallace
Tue 14 Aug 2012 21:31

August 14....HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKI!!   What a gorgeous day....blue sky, 70 degrees, light breeze....we left Schull by ferry for Cape Clear Island (where we tried to anchor yesterday) to spend the day.  This island Ireland's most southerly island, 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, with a population of 120.  It is a Gaeltacht Island, meaning the first language is Irish.  The government provides economic incentives for Irish to settle here and follow "the old ways" in order to preserve the culture, language, and traditions.  It is also a bird watcher's paradise.  The pictures below really do not do justice for the beauty and peacefulness of the island.  We spent the day hiking, enjoyed a very nice Heritage Center and Fastnet Rock Exhibit.  We even saw a cottage we considered buying (picture with sign below!!).  All was perfect....until the 3pm ferry ride back to Schull!  While taking the 45 minute return ferry to Schull, I talked with the ferry captain about the developing weather system and what we might expect being at anchor in Schull (which is exposed to the south)..and he said "you need to move NOW...you will not make it through the night...winds will head up to 45 knots and gust to more, with seas going to 10 feet ALL OUT OF THE SOUTH"!  So, at 5pm,  we got aboard "Arbella" and pulled up anchor before we even knew where we were going...somewhere back east was our destination.  By now they were warning of the "WORST STORM TO HIT IRELAND SINCE 1986...TAKE SHELTER"!  We called the Kinsale Yacht Club, which we could reach by 1am, only to hear that they had "closed the harbour for the first time ever", and there was no room for us.  The storm was to be "Force 9/10" ... steady winds of 45 knots, gusting more, waves to 25-30 feet...over the next 2 days!  We called Fergus O'Mahoney at Mary Ann's in Castletownshend to see how conditions were and whether there was room for us, since the area is quite small...he said "ah come on, yul be fine here, get up close".  Since we had been there twice before, we knew the geography and anchorage, and this did indeed seem like a good "hurricane hole".  We arrived and dropped anchor at 9:30pm, in the dark.  We then went below to break out a bottle of Champagne, and celebrate "Vicki's Birthday...and...the worst storm to hit Ireland since 1986"...and the high winds and rain began!!

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