May 2007
Before the season got to be too serious, I took Anna M for a spin to see her namesake, our daughter Anna Marie, and her family, in the Isle of Man, where they had lately moved when Sam got a job there as scientific adviser for fisheries. Mike Holden, blind Rob and I left Sherkin with plenty of West wind forecast, but nothing to show for it but a nasty ground sea, that shook the little breeze there was from the sails. Off Galley Head, it started to freshen fitfully, the darkening sky looked threatening while the sea was getting still worse, so I went to take in a reef. All of a sudden three really vicious waves reared up astern, one of which broke, filling the deck with water and leaving not a little in the cockpit. They seemed totally out of proportion to the conditions, and really did merit that over-used term ‘freak waves’; God knows what caused them! |
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After we passed the Old Head of Kinsale, the sea became much more reasonable, while the breeze hardened. We put in to Ballycotton, to pick up some belongings that Anna and Sam had had to leave behind, then skipped up to Ardmore in the evening, where we paused for a night’s rest. Leaving very early in the morning, we berthed even earlier the next morning in Dun Laoghaire, Mike and Rob’s destination.
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From there on I was on my own. I don’t particularly go for single-handed sailing, since it is hard work and leaves little margin for things to go wrong, but the fact is I enjoy it too. In utter communion with the sea and one’s boat, one begins to feel a bit of a true sea-creature oneself. It is purifying and invigorating. Half a gale blew me up to the Isle of Man overnight, comfortably enough under trysail and working jib, but there was a nasty sea off the south end, so we by-passed Port St Mary, finding a secure berth in the dock at Douglas. There I could leave Anna M in peace, whatever the weather, and do my grand-father bit.
The Isle of Man is a charming place, with broad pastures stretching up to distant fells, and ever glimpses of the wide sea, with the Mountains of Mourne in Ireland, Snowdonia in Wales, the Lake District in England and the Mull of Galloway in Scotland playing hide and seek in the clouds beyond. Fiona came over on the Aer Arann flight from Dublin (at least it’s not a jet – at sea one is very conscious of the amount of stuff they leave in the sky!), and we had a very pleasant couple of days, including an evening in Port Erin, where we had spent a weekend away from Liverpool when she was expecting our first child, 39 years ago. |
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Coming home, I motor-sailed over a very calm Irish Sea, passed a rather incongrous German naval squadron, anchored for a bit of kip while a foul tide passed in Scotsman’s Bay at the back of Dun Loughaire pier, then whistled down to Arklow with a freshening westerly. The ensuing gale gave me the ideal excuse to go and see Noolie, Anto and Norah at Kilruddery; my married daughters are obliging me by settling in places accessible to a sailor, much less troublesome than the other way of having a woman in every port! |
The west wind was settling when I finally sailed past Tuskar, but I had to put in a long tack to the south with a foul tide. At least this caused me to meet some dolphins again at last, there being a large school of them about 16 miles south of Carnsore Point. Funny how, after the winter, both they and the whales seem to show up first east along. Tacking, I could lay Tramore, where at nightfall the wind veered northerly, whisking me down to the Old Head again overnight. Afterwards the breeze backed again, and I was back to laborious beating, but at least it was a fine day. Here are the Stag rocks, looking like some fantastic submarine as I passed to the North of them:- |
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How very different they look from the West!
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Back at the Ranch, we have now got our planning permission for an extension to Horseshoe Cottage; basically a T piece at the back with a couple of big family rooms, a sun-room to the side where the decaying conservatory is, and a work-shop. It will all be combined with a big effort to thoroughly ‘green’ the place. What I’d really like to do is to be able to make hydrogen with our own windmill, and see what can be done with these fuel cells. They sound a wonderful way to provide electricity and auxiliary power for a sailing boat..... So come stayin’ an’ sailin’ folks, and let’s see if we can finance it!
Joe Aston 25th May 2007. |
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April 2007 report
March 2007 report
January 2007 report
November 2006 report
October 2006 report
On launching Wavedancing - 19 April 2006
IWDG Cabo Verde Expedition - 11th March 2006 |
© Photograph - Tony Whelan |
