053:17.896 N
006:08.139 W

Dun Laoghaire

Well today the wind did NOT did follow the forecast! We expected a steady 15 knots all day and during breakfast noticed 25 knot gusts in the marina, but we thought we’d give it a go anyway, we could always reef down. 

However, we got a bit caught out this morning. We had realised it was low tide when we came to leave the pontoon, so pushed TC back by hand, tentatively, as it looked shallow. Rather shockingly it wasn’t long until she was sitting on the mud with the echo sounded was reading 0.0m under the keel. Fortunately the engine brought her back alongside, and our friendly neighbour summed it up perfectly…. ‘time to put the kettle on and wait’.

It was 45 minutes before low tide, so we put the kettle on and watched the tide drop further, before it rose enough for us to brave it. By the time we did creep out, there was literally 20cm under the keel; our first marina where the depth is not enough to reach the pontoons at LW.

The only casualty here was losing two precious hours of northerly wind, we stuck our nose out with reefs and began with a fabulous speed, estimating the 60 miles would be done in 10 hours. Sadly and to our horror, the wind ebbed away until after 25 miles the boat was lolloping and rolling and crashing about in a very lumpy swell. Ghosting along at 2 knots, our arrival time moved to breakfast tomorrow.

So before we completely wrecked the sails from all the thrashing, we turned the engine on and rolled our way south; it did take us 10 hours but what an exhausting roller coaster as the swell lasted virtually all the way.

However, as ever, the highlight of the day was the wildlife with Puffins, Guillemots, Shearwaters, Kittiwakes, Terns and Gannets all around the boat. We passed some Gannets fishing, such an incredible sight to watch them tuck their wings in and head straight down into the sea, vertical high-speed darts, so elegant. Then a cry went up “DOLPHINS” …. they were spectacularly energetic with about ten of them playing in the bow wave for ages, leaping right out of the water, ducking and diving around the boat, so thrilling to see, and without realising it, we are watching with huge grins on our faces.

Enormous ships, ferries, cruiser liners and freighters coming and going marked the entrance to Dublin Bay, there is even a traffic separation scheme outside. But all was fine, and we slipped in through a gap between ships and headed across the harbour to an enormous entrance marking Dun Laoghaire Marina.

Such a relief to get here finally and so lovely to see a huge Irish flag flying high at the entrance to welcome us; how lovely to have sailed to Europe.