So, what have the crew of Cape been up to during the deafening blog silence of the last couple of weeks?

Laura (Lawrence’s girlfriend) joined the barmy boat bums here in Crosshaven for 10 days of rest and relaxation (ha!).

Laura and the barmy boat bums.

David entered the spear gun stakes…

Big white hunter keeping head low so not spotted from Royal Cork Clubhouse. Big white hunter 2: Royal mullet 0.

We discovered a good beach within walking distance.

Church Bay – our new backyard.

We picked periwinkles – and then cooked and ate them in true Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall style. I have to say that a simmering pan of periwinkles, stock and mixed herbs looks suspiciously like boiling up the contents of a rock pool. They tasted pretty good (if a little gritty), with vinegar and a twist of black pepper.

The perils of periwinkles…yum, yum!

The boys caught the first mackerel of the season and we BBQ’d them over a driftwood fire on the beach. Having survived the periwinkles, we braved limpets simmered gently in their own juice. I have to report that they tasted like fishy elastic bands, but if we are ever shipwrecked...

Jennie Wood (of Celtic Challenge fame) and her fella, Mark, joined us for lots of booze, sausages, mackerel and basking shark spotting.

More mackerel on the beach with Laura, Jennie and Mark.

Two basking sharks spent a couple of hours in the bay, and David and Lawrence – after exchanging nervous looks and some false bravado – snorkelled out to swim with them. After spending 10 minutes or so bobbing around nervously looking for the trademark dorsal triangles, humming the theme tune from Jaws to each other (and getting even more nervous when they couldn’t see the fins), they convinced themselves that they really were Basking Sharks and not Great Whites. Apparently they had the “Well, it’s been nice knowing you and sailing with you, mate…” conversation before striking out to confront the Beast of Church Bay. I think it was just that they had an audience watching from the rocks, so they didn’t want to lose face by coming in without have a closer look!

Was it worth it? You bet it was! They got within 1.5 metres of the shark as it swam past, and they stared down into its massive jaws sucking in plankton! The boys then swam back nonchalantly as if this was the sort of thing they did every time they went to the beach.

Spot the shark competition…

The boys continue to plug every suspicious hole, nook, cranny and crack on the deck. Today they tackled the hatch that we think was responsible for the whole ‘Bailing Incident’. We’ve been getting updates on the Aber rowing results and activities. It sounds like the Aber mixed team (the one with Helena coxing) had a ‘Bailing Incident’ too. Hope you’ve found your leak…

Here in the calm waters of the Owenabue River, I have had time to reflect on our ‘Bailing Incident’. We did take on quite a lot of water from Neyland to Crosshaven, mainly when I was on watch doing a scientific test of whether heading directly into the waves did the damage. I could fill the bilges from below the keel bolts to overflowing the cabin sole in 15 minutes. Once I altered course north to take the waves just on our quarter – Helmut the Autopilot wasn't very impressed when I told him to stop navigating to the waypoint and flashed at me (he beeped as well apparently, but I couldn't hear 'cos of the engine noise) – but at least the water stopped coming in. I have to say that it's the warmest passage I have ever made. Bailing out every 15 minutes certainly keeps you warm (dual purpose too, as I plotted our position every other bailing session while I was down there) – I didn't have to resort to a hot water bottle down my oilies once! It is interesting to see that our course on the blog map shows the deviation north.

Sunset over the Owenabue River from our mooring at the RCYC.

Jackie (of Mymax and astrology fame) says that us being in Ireland has reminded her of the Eurovision song contest (the link must be the lilting tones of a pickled Terry Wogan) and has sent the results from the Mymax jury on the performance of the Cape crew so far:

·        8 points to Lawrence – Mullet King of Cape (he would have been higher in the rankings but for his recent defeat – the fishy nose job)

·        10 points have to go to Sarah – for bailing performance with the Lakeland baby bucket (Jackie says that she could see the video footage becoming a workout DVD for liveaboards...)

·        11 points go to Bryn and Bethany – for sleeping through the all of the fun

·        12 points go to Dave – for naming the Autopilot ‘Helmut’.

This brings me to the warning that we have received for giving names to objects, and the dodgy mental state that this exposes. Jackie and Stu (Mymax) know about this because they do it all of the time apparently…I quote from recent e-mail from them, “Our car is called Rosie, our dishwasher is aptly named big Bertha, and the outboard for the dinghy is known as Mr Johnson....” Need I go on?

And our plans for the coming week or so?

Bethany and Bryn have been signed up for dinghy sailing course – hopefully they can then teach us how to sail our dinghy. With any luck our new sail will arrive by the end of the week, and if I can finish off my project, we’ll be looking for a weather window to test the leaks in Biscay.

On a final note for this blog entry, David and Lawrence insisted that I include this photo so that you should all be made aware of the dangers of blogging and what it does to you. I should explain that the head torch is so that I can see the keyboard because the boys want ‘Alien 3’ on and the lights off. The large vodka and Coke is needed to help the blog flow…