My last report ended with us debating whether to go on to Kinsale on Sunday 4 July from Crosshaven with strong westerlies forecast - so did we go, or did we chicken out?

 

 

Well, the dinner at the Royal Cork Yacht Club on Saturday night was very good, and the weather on Sunday morning really wasn't very friendly, so most of us decided to stay in Crosshaven - a pity because the clipper fleet was in Kinsale and Sir Robin was to be there, so we were sorry to miss it.  But two intrepid boats did go, Sybarite, Duncan McMillan's Maxi 1200 with Mike Gill, Roy Lardner and Michael George on board, and Tim and Gabbie Ryan in their chartered Sun Odyssey 37 Yola, crewed by Cieran Ryan and Chris Smart.  Sybarite sailed the course for the timed passage (the first of the cruise), but Yola put her engine on, so Duncan McMillan ensured he won at least one prize !  (In fact he won the next day's prize too in the same way, as the rest of the fleet went straight to Glandore.)  They went into Castlepark marina in Kinsale, and found it extremely expensive and not to their liking, so booked us in to Trident Hotel marina for the return trip (half the price and extremely helpful and pleasant people).

Our heartfelt thanks go to Wietse Buwalda, HPO Crosshaven, and manager of the Salve Marina, for his extremely warm welcome, excellent arrangements, and great ability to fix all sorts of problems on yachts. He hopes we will come back soon, and we can certainly be sure of being well looked after when we do.

Barrie Martin and Julie Coleclough quickly added an extra timed passage to the list for the rest of the fleet - a long leg (about 48 miles) from Crosshaven to Glandore, and we set off on Monday morning.  Headwinds meant tacking up the coast, with much debate about whether to stay inshore out of the tide or take the direct route.  A Day at the Races (Barrie and Julie with Leslie Burgess and Nicola de Quincey) won on corrected time (but only by 5 minutes in about 8 hours of sailing), with Fioreun second.

Glandore lived up to it's reputation as a very pretty anchorage with few facilities, and eating on board was the order of the day.

 

 

The next day was a shorter leg to Baltimore, with an option to stop in Barloge and explore Lough Hyne, a semi saline nature reserve lake.  The weather was wet and poor visibility, so we decided to go straight to Baltimore.  Fioreun's engine gave trouble, stopping several times and needing air to be bled to restart it (great fun in a rolly sea with the Stacks rocks not far away), but would only run for a few minutes before stopping again.  Luckily the wind freed and got up to allow a good sail into Baltimore, where the harbourmaster did an amazing job of towing us alongside his 250 hp rib, pirouetting around in very small spaces and depositing us safely alongside the pontoon on the South Pier. Changing fuel filters revealed no obvious problems, and Fioreun's engine ran faultlessly the rest of the trip, so the cause of the trouble is still a mystery.  The rest of the fleet arrived safely and rafted up on the pontoon.

Boats taking part at this stage (apart from Sybarite, Yola, A Day at the Races, Fioreun already mentioned) were Roshanak ( Julian and Diana Hansen's Southerly 32), Lazy Life (Hunter Peace with Gerry Bryant, Tom Davey, Silke Zimmermann, and Michael Hodges and Francis Goodwin joining in Baltimore), Silver Tide (Keith Irons with Richard Taylor and Ron Gardner), Spindrift of Hamble (Moody 42' ketch with Tony and Peter Cheesman), and Bedazzled, Tony Cotton's 10 metre Dazcat.  Mike Lakey in Melody, his Sigma 292 left the crusie in Crosshaven to continue his round Britain voyage, and Tom and Diana Wall took Claudia III, the 52' motor yacht back home to Dunmore East also from Crosshaven.

After a lay day in Baltimore we went to the Lookout Restaurant for the second cruise dinner, and very nice it was too.  The arrangements made by Dom O'Flynn (HPO Baltimore and West) and his wife Mary were excellent. 

 

Dom and Mary entertained some of the crews for drinks before dinner at their house overlooking the harbour, an absolutely stunning location.  They did a superb job of making arrangements for the cruise in advance, and our thanks go to them, as also to Tim and Gabbie Ryan for all their help.

Next day was the mini-Fastnet timed passage (see my other story here).  We had hoped to go to Sandy Island, owned by David Blackburn (see story part 1 for our visit to his estate at Lisselan) off the north of Sherkin Island, for a barbecue in the evening.  Complicated arrangements were made with great help from the Lisselan estate manager Sarah Lane, and involving a rib to ferry us up there from an anchorage on Sherkin Island. Unfortunately the weather forecast confidently( and accurately) predicted heavy rain for just that time, so we had to cancel it, and ate on board on the Sherkin pontoon.  By this time, Silver Tide, Sybarite and Spindrift had left to return to the UK, anticipating bad weather to come.  (They weren't wrong ! - we'll have to pick their brains for their forecasting methods - magic seaweed? -  to know how they saw the gales coming so far in advance)

The plan for the next day, Friday 9 July, was a timed passage to Castletownsend, where several boats planned to eat at Mary Ann's, the renowned Egon Ronay restaurant.  The start line in the entrance to Baltimore harbour was most interesting - narrow, with rocks both sides and not enough wind to get the boat to tack at times.  After a lot of drifting around just missing rocks, some boats decided to motor it and Fioreun and A Day at the Races eventually managed to find enough wind to break away and sail it. Arriving in Castletownsend, we anchored in time to see the wind get up and blow into the estuary strongly enough to make a rubber dinghy trip ashore wet and uncomfortable enough, with serious doubts about whether it would be safe to get back later after dinner.  So regretfully we cancelled the tables at Mary Ann's and dug out tins etc. to eat on board.  So near and yet so far!

Next day was an easy 35 mile sail to Kinsale to the very helpful Trident marina to prepare for the return trip to the UK.  All went well, though the rain in the afternoon when we were mooring up and later was the heaviest and most persistent I've seen for a long time.  But if you go cruising in Ireland........   A Day at the Races and Bedazzled decided to stay in Kinsale and sail directly to Falmouth the following day, so there were just 3 boats in Kinsale - Lazy Life, Roshanak and Fioreun. 

After a prizegiving ceremony in the Yacht Club (Fioreun won the main prize - Yesss!), and prizes for Roshanak in the under 10 metre class, and Bedazzled (in absentia) for the catamaran class, we went for a last dinner on Irish soil.

Read more about the return trip in Part 3.

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