JacquiR

Gerry is our 2nd Capt. He is 83 year old retired fishing captain, living near Kinkeel Harbor with his wife Lorraine. Thick, heavy brogue, gray beard, runny eyes and wearing "Dutchman sailor shoes" (We'd recognize them as the forefathers of Dansko clogs), he definitely is a character. A storyteller with absolutely facinating stories, I was glad to have had the pleasure of meeting him. Difficult to understand at times but sat on the bow with me as we cruised down the canal, out the lock and out into the Irish sea, he kept his hands busy repairing ropes with expert hands. From explaining, the material of the ropes to pointing out the harbor seals he was a pleasure to spend the day with. The evening before, he had agreed to accompanying us as far as Cadiz, ... read more

AWOL - The kingpin of the trip is MIA. As the first day ended and the next began, there was no signs of Tom. Peter was beginning to get frantic. Peter was late getting to the boat and when he arrived at 1pm, Bruno had jumped ship and Tom had not appeared. So we went on a Tom hunt. Peter described Tom as a hippie, flower child, wannabe recording artist in his late 50's with long gray hair. He lived on a boat in Carlington, Ireland that had been remodelled into a recording studio. We went off down the road to Carlington to try and see if Tom was on his boat. It was a great ride and there was no noticeable difference from Northern Ireland to Ireland except the signs were not in English and ... read more

The trip was off to a fairly dull start as the original plane had to be left in Newark do to a "check engine light" on that they couldn't determine the cause. It was obviously electrical as we sat on the plane for two hours with the light and air going on and off but finally de-planed waited another 2 hours and set off across the Atlantic to Belfast, only 3 hours late. I was greeted with special name sign by the Director of this cruise (I will not refer to him as Captain as later blogs will explain). Cheery sort of chap, very gregarious and excited to "get on our way". But.....first the good and the bad news....the bad news was that one of the drive shafts had over heated on the sea trial and ... read more