We were about to go ashore to walk around the town and headland when the harbour master asked us to move as they wanted to bring in a 43 metre super yacht. We then had to wait for a series of manoeuvres involving about six yachts before we could untie from the pontoon and move forward to raft alongside a Najad 511 called Red Roo. We had met the owners, Peter and Shirley, on the bus into Cork the previous week. The super yacht (Clan VIII) then arrived having motored at 10 knots with the wind on the nose all the way from Portugal using 70 litres of diesel per hour. She was on her way up to Scotland to meet the owners. We thought of telling them not to bother!

In front of us was a lovely yacht called Ghost a slick 40 metre carbon built super yacht with very clean lines.The owners were due on board that day. Marita and Red Roo were the filling in the sandwich between these two super yachts———but we did not look out of place!

Kinsale is a very pretty town with narrow streets and an array of shops——a bit like Fowey and Salcombe

A marina and yacht club

There is a Norman church that was rebuilt on the site of a Celtic church dating from 600 AD. The church used to be fortified with battlements but these have been removed. On the stone pillars of the entrance doors were deep cuts made by swords being sharpened by the Norman soldiers.

We returned to Crosshaven on Wednesday morning as the electrician was meant to be returning the bow thruster solenoid that evening——he came on Thursday morning nursing a bad back. With the bow thruster mended (it was not the solenoid but a faulty connection on the 425 amp fuse that had originally failed in Palma in 2013——I had not replaced it for new so another lesson learnt!). Red Roo remained in Kinsale as she has a problem with her chartplotter and is waiting for parts. She is following on to Falmouth so we will see her again. 

We went for a walk, looked across the harbour towards Cork city which is reputed to be second largest harbour in the world, 

and saw the historic Camden Fort, one of the finest classical Artillery Forts in the world. Unfortunately it is only open on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays so we only saw it from the outside which was disappointing as 65% of it is underground in a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers! Impossible to photograph an underground fort!

Then back to the marina with cloud and wind increasing.