With the engine fixed ( thanks again to Hugh at Crosshaven and to RCYC ), we set off on the short trip to Kinsale ( 51:40.80N, 008:30.00W ). It was a bright day , with a good F5 blowing from the SW .Since this was the direction we were heading it was going to be another motoring trip. We also had a small craft strong wind warning of F6 for the end of the afternoon from the coastguard, so basically wanted to get on with it and get to Kinsale before it blew harder.

It was a bit of a slog out of Cork harbour and out to sea, against a contrary tide, which stayed with us for much of the trip, and was stronger than we had expected from the pilot books and charts. Thinking about this after, the tide may have been compounded by the strong southerly winds which had been blowing all the previous day as well. In any event, coupled with quite rough seas, this slowed us down to around 3.5 kts over the ground for a time, but eventually this crept up to a more respectable 5kts in quite heavy seas, with the engine running at a fairly hard 2800rpm to help push through the waves....which Moondog did very well.

This was also a good test of the engine oil seal repair, and we had a safe escape plan if the engine blew, since we could easily run back to Crosshaven under sail downwind, with no risk of being blown onto land. As it worked out, there were no such problems, and we got to Kinsale just as the wind started its predicted stronger blow, and we just went into the first empty head to wind and tide berth we could find at Castlepark Marina, and tied up without incident.