Cork to Kinsale

The adventures of Chili III
Peter & Belinda Vernon
Fri 13 Jul 2018 11:00
51:42.0N 008:31.0W
 
A lovely 17 NM sail down the Irish coast to Kinsale where we planned to meet Ed. Bright sunshine, light winds, perfect. Wind stronger on arrival. Marina manager (Richard) suggested on VHF we should raft up next to a boat called Hendrix (cool name for a boat I thought). He agreed to stand on the boat and direct us in which he did with great confidence. Time for another monstrous balls up. Approaching Hendricks with the boat in neutral I found speed increasing (unexpected tide), tried to slow with reverse but this makes the boat  kick to port - unhelpful in this situation. Recovery impossible no matter what - painful grinding of pushpits and anchors as we entangled ourselves with Hendrix and his Swedish neighbour. Managed to get along side with no damage done (we thought). Weclome to Kinsale - said Richard. "That was quite a balls up I said" humiliated. "Monumental" he replied. I tried to avoid eye contact with other yachties as I walked back down the pontoon to the club house to sign in.  it turned out that we had damaged the navigation light of our Swedish neighbour  - a lovely softly spoken sailor who seemed to have sailed everywhere. He was leaving he next day for Scotland. By some miracle I managed to get a replacement nav light brought to Crosshaven from Cork City by a very helpful chandler and fitted it for him whilst he was having dinner. I felt slightly redeemed especially as the light I replaced was on its last legs.
 
Whilst all this was going on Lenny, the electronics engineer turned up to fix GPS / AIS. He was brilliant and a very nice guy  -arrived at 6, left at 10 with new VHF and GPS Antenna's fitted and everything working perfectly. He is just about the only person I've met that truly understands the intricate details of marine electronics. Brilliant.
 
A great weekend in Kinsale - a really lively buzzing town with masses of dinghy sailing, great food and excellent live music including at Kitty O'Shea's where trad. Irish competes with the metal band in the pub next door.  Ed arrived via bus from Cork Airport on Sunday. Excellent to have him on board.