13/07/18 Southern Ireland
Saro's Gyda
Derrick Thorrington
Sun 3 Mar 2019 16:52
As you can tell, the
plan for Anglesey also didn't come to fruition either. Such are the vagueries
(spelling?) of sailing. The wind was constantly from the NE and the hoped for
prtedicted easterlies did not happen. Although I had hoped to stay in the UK for
easy transport routes home, we decided to fill in the gaps in S Ireland. Not so
satisfactory as jumping on a train to get home, but at least accessable to Cork
Airport.
We had a
particularly boisterous sail across St Georges Channel with the predicted NE
4-5, gusting 6 turning out to be more like 6-7, gusting 8. Needless to say we
made a very fast passage with all 3 reefs in the main and a small scrap of
genoa, but were releived to get into the shelter of Ireland away from the
swell and more frisky breaking waves which were regularly dumoing their mass in
the cockpit. It is a long time since we wore full waterproofs. Despite all this,
it was a lovely sunny day and we were accompanied regularly by playful common
dolphins.
Our first landfall
was Tramore Bay,a huge wide expanse of sand with the town at the western end. we
anchored on the opposite side, quite a way from the shore due to the shallowness
of the water.
Tramore from half
way along the beach from where we landed.
We landed the dinghy
and pulled it a way up the beach although the tide was on the way out, and
walked about 2 miles along the beach to the town for a look. It was dreadful!!
Full of amusement arcades, fast food stalls, funfairs and too many people! It
did redeem itself however as we walked to the top of the hill for the
supermarket.A lovely green with a church and some pleasant houses. We tramped
back along the beach with heavy rucksacks towards the distant dinghy, high and
dry, about 400 yds from the sea. After carrying this to the waters edge and
swimming/rowing to the distant "mother ship" we both felt as if we had had our
daily exercise!
We moved on in the
afternoon to have a look at Youghal (pronounced Yawl, as we found out when we
ventured Yule!) This was well worth the stop. We anchored up the estuary
opposite the town which has alot of interesting history and is attractive. We
explored the old walls and related buildings and read about Cromwell who
left from here after he had converted Ireland to his cause, The bikes came out
and we had a lovely cycle ride over the headland into Ardmore to look at one of
the best preserved round towers, built by monks at thier monastries to escape
with thier valuables, away from various enemies. The following day we went
alonside the new pontoon, (No overnight stays. Overnight stay 5 euros!??) and
filled with fuel from a freindly mobile tanker who arrived 20 mins after
requesting, filled with water and did a load of hand washing. Very productive
and fun bantering with the local fishermen and ferrymen.
Leaving
Youghal
The next stop was
Cork Harbour where we anchored on the east side of Great Island and enjoyed a
rather hilly circumnavigation b y bike taking in Cobh as we
went.
East Passage,
Cork
The time has now run
out as I have to go home again from Baltimore and need to get my first bus of 3
to take me to Cork Airport. More Ireland to follow in due
course.