Castletownsend to Baltimore

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Departed Castletownsend at 0930 and tied up at the mooring at 1330. Final leg of the 801 mile circumnavigation! We woke late to a calm, dry morning and hauled anchor and left for Baltimore. We raised the main even though there was little or no wind and motored past the Stags and outside the Kedge Rocks. I was tempted to go inside as it was so calm but the memory of the last passage through there together with the desire to get to the finish kept us outside. We cut the engine about a half mile outside the Beacon and caught a dozen mackerel in no time. The we started the engine and with me standing in front of the mast and Danny on the tiller we came in under the Beacon. This was the moment when FR was crossing her own path. She had come out here 45 days earlier. I gave a silent prayer of thanks that all had gone well and now we were safely back to where we had started. We had some long and occasionly fraught passages and a lot of very early mornings when the rain made you want to turn over and sleep on but the need to make progress got you out and up. And now in the sunshine we were nearly there. With Sherkin on our port and Baltimore ahead we were finishing the cruise.
We were going a little slow as we approached the Loo starboard mark so I asked Danny to 'give it some welly'. He said that the engine was on full. But we were only doung 2.5 knots on a calm sea. Even against a strong tide we would get 4 + knots through the water. I lifted the engine cover and saw that the drive shaft was only slowly turning as it does when we are in neutral. We were only making way with the main and a gentle SE breeze. The engine sounded fine and we tried a quick dart of reverse. We stopped. Then out of reverse and into forward but all that moved us was tthe wind and at a snails pace. This was incredible. 801 miles and the gear box packs in in the last half mile! I thought of the many times that we had started the engine when it just HAD to start to get us safely in out of wicked weather. Every marina and harbour we had entered we had needed that engine (almost). Off Fair Head we had really needed the engine. Now we had only the main sail to get us to the mooring. Luckily the wind was fair even if it was very light. Indeed it was easier with the light breeze. Better now to be doing 1.5 knots in the right direction than 5 knots. The bay was chock a block with racing dinghys, ferries, ribs, yachts. We ignored them all and made a bee line for the red rib which we had left on our mooring. Danny was still on the tiller. As we neared we could see the last thing we needed. Another yacht tied to the mooring.... It was starboard on to us with our dinghy lying along it. We had one shot to tie on. If we missed we were on a one way ticket to the lifeboat station! But Danny expertly brought us port side on and to a stop and I held us steady while he tied us off. We then had the chore of getting this other boat on to a nearby empty mooring which I realised was actually his. He must have found himself in the same spot recently. A passing dinghy took a long line over to the other mooring and we pulled her across. We then had a look at the gearbox and we could see that the cables were firmly attached and moving back and forth. We had reverse but no forward....? I assumed that there was something amiss in the gears themselves but my frieend Sean now suggests that maybe the cable has slipped a little and just failing to engage forward. It may be a simple remedy.......... Ashore on the big dinghy (what comfort) and a few pints in the very hot sunshine while waiting for Sally to pick us up.
45 days is a slow circumnavigation of Ireland. But we were never in a hurry. In fact we enjoyed several nights in Dingle, Aran, Boffin, Tory, Portrush, Glenarms, Arklow and Crosshaven. We used about 180 liters of diesel. We had more motoring then we cared for but we had some brilliant sails. Castletownbere to Dingle and Dunmore East to Crosshaven being the two best. We had a 13 hour night sail across Donegal Bay. We had come through some bad weather off Aranmore and off Fair Head. We had some long hot sunny days and one day I even briefly took off my t-shirt. We had seen some amazing places and met some lovely people. We will be back for a longer spell to the Aran Island, Inishboffin and Tory. Arklow is a surprisingly lovely place to spend a few days. We had pints in McCarthys Bar in Castletownberehaven, Dick Macs in Dingle, The American bar in Aran, Healys in Belmullet, Club Shosiolta in Tory, Steves in Glenarms and Cronins in Crosshaven. We met friendliness and helpfulness everywhere. Thanks to Matt for the bacon and cabbage in Kilkee. Thanks to Druid for giving us tickets when we had no right to expect them. It was a pleasure to meet Pat Ryan and his mother in Inis Meain together with Shane O'Grady. Patsy Dan Mac Ruaidhri, the King of Tory is a gentlemanand a true advocate for his island. The humour and friendliness of the people of the North was in contrast to the strange 'welcome' we recieved at the RUYC.
To the people we sailed with
Moritz Meuller
Marie-Leauw
Dan Gray
Shane O'Grady
John Hillis
Daniel Mohally
Ben Mohally

Lets do it again next year!

Pat & Sally

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