Passage Log Archive
5 entries from this stretch of the passage.
Jess and I toured Belfast like a couple of pros before she would fly home, and Chris and Rich would fly in. Belfast doesn’t offer much in the way of esthetics, however it more than makes up for it through its past history of ship building, i.e. the Titanic, and of course the infamous Catholic vs Protestant struggles that take place even today. We took a 4 hour walking tour that was led for the first half by an IRA member that had spent 12 years in prison for bomb making and harboring weapons for the army. He was now a leader in Sean Fein and a community organizer. His tour was spent in the Irish Catholic neighborhoods and it seemed every person that passed would shake hands or stop to talk with our guide. He was a highly respected member of community.
We really needed to start moving as we had many miles to go to get to Northern Ireland and not much time. So off we went to Crosshaven and the oldest know yacht club in the world, the Royal Cork Yacht Club. Besides the nostalgia of it being an old yacht club and a convenient place for us to stop, there was no real draw to it.
After Adrigole Jess and I made a hop to Schull harbor which was about 30 miles. Getting out of Bantry bay itself in stiff SW winds was the most challenging part of the short trip but the remainder was rather uneventful with the exception of the rough sea state that got Jess sea sick. Unfortunately Jess always gets sea sick for the first 12 hours and being these small passages are only 4-6 she is sick almost the entire time. Nothing seems to help. The longer passages are a bit easier as after 12 hours or so as she gets acclimated. The solution that keeps her sanity is ginger tea. Its calming, quenches thirst, healthy, mixed with lemon delicious, and the ginger settles your stomach.
Darrynane harbor had an imposing entrance. You come in between some daunting rocks with breaking waves on either side of the boat through a narrow entrance, steer a course of 34 degrees before making a hard 90 degree next to a marker to starboard and come into the totally protected lagoon. The scenery here was very different, it almost resembled the mediterranean. There was more barren rock, the white sandy beaches and turquoise water. We were told to visit this harbor by a local and he thought it the most beautiful in all of Ireland. Well, we haven’t seen much of Ireland yet but this was a winner. We stayed two nights on a visitor mooring and soaked in the natural beauty.
Entry into the Dingle harbor was welcomed with not only an abundance of sea life, but also the thousand shades of green that the Emerald Isle is known for. As we usually do after a long passage, we got our sea legs and rewarded ourselves with a dinner in town washed down with some cool beverages, this time though it was fresh Guinness. The town itself was a bit over touristed but by the end of our stay it had grown on us and we ended up staying in Dingle 5 days. We brought out the Bromptons and on our second day took a long ride out of town onto Slea Head drive and took in the scenery. We decided to take a short cut down a back road instead of doing the entire Slea Head circle.
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