Crab, basking sharks and giants, its been quite a few days! Now the wind is back it continues to dog me although the weather has been fantastic; as I went north the winds were  northerly, now I am going east they are easterly and tomorrow as I head south, well, you guessed it! Still, I am sitting out in the cockpit as I write this at 8 o'clock in the evening supping a glass of fine brandy left by Chris, it ain't that bad! Indeed, I have had more sunshine in the last few days than the whole of the rest of the trip put together!

On thursday evening  I left Derry and  anchored in a pretty little bay where there were some fisherman coming in from the days crabbing. I rowed over to ask them if I could buy a crab for tea; I came away with a monster and they wouldn't take a bean! I looked up on the internet to see how long to cook the crab for and it gave a tip as to how to cook him in a more humane way than just dunking him in boiling water. You hold him above the water, stroke his head until he falls asleep then lower him gently into the boiling water- yeh right!!

On Friday I continued east heading for the north east corner of Ireland. I had heard that this was basking shark country; they are a very large shark but harmless as the eat plankton, scooped up in their huge mouths as the whales do and they did not let me down - they are HUGE!! The dorsal fin is very un-shark like, more like a dome than a fin, so large it cannot support itself and flops about (it rather goes with the whole cuddly image of the basking shark which at worst could suck you to death!) It sticks about 2' out of the water.

This  photo doesn't show the fin very well, it has flopped over to the side so looks a little more shark like! I saw 3 altogether, one fairly small at about 15' long the other two about 25' and 30' respectively, that 3/4 of the length of my boat!!! This fellow past right down the side of the boat about 3' away, all very exciting!

This morning I set of at 7 to beat the crowds at the Giants Causeway, a rather extraordinary rock formation caused by basalt shooting up through the earths crust umpteen million years ago. As the basalt solidifed it did so into columns that are (nearly) all polygons, pretty wacky! The call it the Giants Causeway because it forms a bit of a path out to sea and is said to be the causeway the Irish Giant took to go and see his girlfriend in Scotland where ther is a similar causeway coming out of the sea!

There was I!

This afternoon I bashed another 30 miles east in an increasingly strong wind; at force 6 beating becomes pretty hard work!
Tomorrow I head around the north east corner heading south east for home (you guessed the wind direction). I have been able to see Scotland clearly for the past few days; Islay and the Mull of Galloway have been quite clear. Tomorrow I head down the channel between Ireland and Scotland, the Mull of Kintyre is only 15 miles from the Irish coast! I may not have the wind with me but if I time it right I will have a ripping tide of about 3 knots with me; 3 knots (nautical miles per hour) doesn't sound much but when you're only travelling at 6kts it make quite a difference!
My adventure is coming to a close now, tonight I am 130miles from Holyhead (as the crow flies, not necessarily as the boat sails!). There is an Easterly gale coming in on wednesday so I want to get back before it comes in. I am picking up James Bailey, a friend from Rhosneigr, tomorrow night in Belfast. He will do the last 2 days with me, one further day south down the coast then the hop back over the Irish sea to Holyhead. And so the Irish adventure ends! I will sign off now. Thank you for reading. I know most of those who have been following us but in case I have missed you do please drop me a line at jeffwrinch@btinternet.com and let me know, it's always nice to know who is out there. I very much hope to continue the adventure next year.
Jeff

What a place of contrast. Derry, as its know to everybody here but known as Londonderry to the Nationalists and to us in England, epitomises the catholic v's protestant, Irish v's English struggles of the last 500 years. The city's medieval walls enclose an attractive, affluent staunchly protestant population whilst just outside the walls to the west is the now infamous, run down, poor, catholic Bogside area, so named because it was built on the boggy banks of the River Foyle and is to where catholics were banished  since inception of the city.
All the way round Ireland we have been learning of the dreadful oppression of the Catholics by the English protestant intruder who, although arriving much earlier, really started to rule the island about 500 years ago when catholics were regarded as no better than animals and treated as such. In the last 100 years catholics have risen from animals to second class citizens, it is no wonder that things erupted the way they did in the '70's. There is an awful lot here that doesn't make one proud to be English.

Since 'The Troubles' settled down things have returned to normal here, mostly. The police station still looks like this, police drive round in armoured landrovers, when on the streets they carry automatic weapons and houses on the short walk up the hill from the Bogside to the city walls still have mesh shutters over them.

'The Troubles' are recorded as 'Bogside Art'  in the area of the Bogside where all the riots took place (most notably 'Bloody Sunday' in 1972) . Entire gable ends of houses are painted with scenes such as these:-

Free Derry is a slogan painted on a house here as long ago as 1960 and refers to the area being 'free' from firstly RUC and then the English army. The Bogside became a 'no go' area for the authorities in 1970, kept out by manned barricades. There are commerative plaques on the walls of houses, one I saw in memory of a 4 year old boy killed by a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier.

Lest they forget.

Back on board fit and well! The trip to the hospital gave a positive result so I was able to head out to the sun with the right drugs finally. A week on the antibiotics, sun and plenty of rest has done the trick happily; the infection has gone and my chest is almost cleared up so I am now back on the boat for the final leg. Paul had other things to do so I am currently on my own but a friend of mine from Rhosneigr may join me in a few days.
I picked up the boat from Sligo on Friday, a little sooner than planned but the winds were due to die for a week so I grabbed the opportunity to get round to the north of Ireland before they did drop, the wind was however northerly and so against me. 3 days sailingand 100 miles later I am in a beautiful sea loch called Loch Swilly, 10 miles from Derry (also known as Londonderry) in County Donegal; what a beautiful place. The wind has now died for a few days and the sun is out so I am heading out on my trusty bike tomorrow to explore the hinterland!

Remember this, well I am back in my least favourite yoga cupboard!The forward toilet has been liquids only for most of the trip, now it has broken completely. Just another little job, I HATE MARINE TOILETS!!! Oh well, some spares are on their way. 

I am breaking off here for a while. I have had a chest infection for several months that has not succumbed to 3 courses of steroids and a course of anti-biotics. It has been 5 months now and if I don't beat it soon I will not be fit to go on my Himalayas trip in October. I am going to leave the boat for 2 weeks, go to hospital to get some tests done then go and join Melanie for a week somewhere warm and dry with a fist full of the right drugs to beat this thing! Melanie is going out to Fuerteventura to see Tim for a week so I am going to join her. She is staying in a yoga place; they asked if I wanted to join in the yoga but I'm afraid yoga has too many associations with boats toilets!

I will sign off now for 2 weeks. I expect to be back on board around 5 Aug. Paul is leaving the boat too and is cycling back across Ireland. Bye for now.

A week of remarkable cooking and culinary delights, Chris creates..... 

first it is roast beef with ALL the trimmings (those yorkshire puddings were made on board from base ingredients)

then roast gammon, all in a little camping oven with 2 top burners













....and Pete enjoys!!

During our first days heavy sail out to an island called Inishboffin, Pete was thrown by a wave whilst down below into the side of a bunk and broke two ribs. The hazards of sailing I'm afraid. Happily they were the ribs round the back and not too painful except when he laughed or sneezed, with Chris's sense of humour on board Pete had to have a bottle of medicinal red wine permanently to hand! You can't tell from the photo but Chris has just had a face full of Irish Sea.













Inishboffin is a beautiful island, part rugged and part soft with beautiful beaches.














On our way in we landed a bucket full of Mackerel; Pete had some very interested visitors when he filleted them.

Pete has recently got his Yachting Association day skippers qualification. As part of his broader yachting education, not satisfied with just some broken ribs, I felt he ought to have a taste of the 'other side' of yachting. Guessed? The second toilet packed up (you may remember that the first  'forward' toilet packed up a while ago with blocked piping and was relegated to liquids only), this made the second 'aft' toilet pretty important! That is the pump casing that Pete has in his hand, note he is still smiling!

Unfortunately the fix has not been an easy one and not yet succesfull. I tried to get a spare part in time for Paul to bring it out but being friday afternoon we couldn't make it happen in time. The problem is with an internal rubber valve which is out of shape and is currently in the vice being left under pressure in the hopes that it will re-flattenand become serviceable again. I think it will work, until then Messrs Bucket and Chuchit are on hand!




There are Atlantic Salmon on the west coast. In order to preserve numbers up the estuarys they have to fish the old fashioned way. Nothing has changed here in hundreds of years! On a bad day they will get none, on a good day 100.

 From Inishboffin we sailed back to the coast and up one of Irelands fjords, stunning scenery, these mountains rose 2500 feet straight out of the water on all sides

Here I dropped Pete and Chris and spent a day walking in the mountains whilst I wait for Paul.

We are back on board but my lovely wife is keeping me company for a week, Paul will be back on board in two weeks time. We had a nice week at home seeing Olly teaching surfing in Newquay and we saw Tim off to teach kitesurfing in fuerteventura. Its Volvo week in Galway; the Volvo round the world race finished in Galway this week after 38,000miles the world. Most of Ireland was in the marina having come to watch, 

They say that an epic race deserves an epic party!

Thin Lizzy turned up and took to the stage to warm every body up.

The boats arrived on the final leg from Portugal, reaching the line at 2am, it was quite a sight; sadly the photos didn't work but there were a sea of fairy lights on the flotilla of spectator boats following a single red light at the top of a huge mast steaming in at 10 knots.

Whilst Galway partied waiting for the in bay racing at the end of the week, Mellers and I headed to the Aran  Islands. We stopped in the bay and Melanie had her first go at fishing, with some success


The fish heads went into the prawn pot in the drink over night and low and behold... well , not the prawns we had hoped for but we got a starter!

Unfortunatly we had already caught enough fish for 3 days when this chap was hauled aboard so he lived to fight another day

We even had some sunshine and the boat saw its first real yoga

 From Aran we headed back to Galway for the Volvo in bay race, the ocean boats raced round the bay for an hour for the sake of the public, quite a sight, after which the overall winner 'Groupama' came into the harbour with flares burning in its rigging

The boats parked up in the marina for all to see, the trophy is handed over  and the real party begins!

On Sunday morning I dropped Melanie to catch a flight home and headed off to pick up Pete and Chris.....

More yoga! This time it was the anchor winch and we were lucky. The morning after the gale the winds had dropped to almost nothing. We came to lift the anchor and nothing happened, the anchor winch had failed, it wouldn't go up, it wouldn't go down. If that had happened last night as we anchored in 30+ knots of wind we would have had a spot of bother. Still, it all keeps me amused!

Winch fixed (a wire had broken) we sailed up the coast a little to be met by St Brendan, the Irish saint who is said to have preceded Columbus and got to America around 600ad, not bad in skin 'curagh'; it made me feel a little whimpy thinking our recent blow was hairy! This is St Brendan pointing forward to the unknown, cape blowing in the wind behind him.


On monday we set off for Galway, 70 miles north. Wind force 4 on our beam gave us a great sail at 6/7 knots. We were joined for a short while by a Minke whale swimming alongside us; he didn't show much of himself, only about 10' of his great back arched out of the water every minute or so.

We stopped briefly a couple of hours out of Galway in the middle of a big flock of sea birds diving into the sea, a sure sign of a school of mackerel. Sails rolled away we drifted with the birds for 20 minutes and pulled out a dozen mackerel, that was tea sorted!

We are now leaving the boat in Galway for 10 days and heading home. I will be back 1st of June with Melanie for a week. Pete and Chris are then out for a week and Paul rejoins me 15 July.

The Volvo round the world race yachts finish the race in Galway the week Melanie and I are here so Galway is gearing up for the party of the year, more on that in a couple of weeks; bye for  now.

 We had a cracking sail to the Dingle Peninsular. A few views of life at a funny angle!

Lee rail under
<<<


Yes that is the sea going past the window!
>>>















The Dingle-

Dingle is home to a now famous dolphin called Fungi, a wild dolphin who has made Dingle his home for over 30 years and likes to interact with boats in the harbour. After the tourist boats had gone in we went out in our little pink rubber dinghy to say hello. Knowing what he was supposed to do Fungi did his stuff! He swam round us within a few feat of the boat (thats my paddle in the photo). I got a good look at him underwater by sticking my head in the water but the moment I got in he scarpered! He used to show off and jump out a lot (Melanie and Olly came to see him 8 years ago and he jumped clean over their boat!) but I think he is past it now, I feel for him!

Yesterday was a biking day. 5 hours in the saddle around more Kerry mountains and over a 1600' pass (thats a big climb on a little folding bike!) A bit of rain, a bit of sun - thats Ireland but great views from the top.

We have to be in Galway in a week to leave the boat as we are going home for a while. With northerly winds forecast in a  few days I decided to leave today in a strong easterly wind (east is off shore so not as bad when strong). Expecting force 6/7 on our beam we got 7/8 on our nose with a maximum gust of 43knots (F9-50 mph) ripping spume off the water with a vengeance, it was time to retire gracefully! I found the nearest shelter I could and we are now sitting out our third gale with the wind beating in the rigging and the boat bucking about her anchor, ear plugs and a pillow over the head tonight!

We had an uncomfortable 24 hours in Derrynane over the weekend with winds of force 7 in our little protected harbour (the English south coast got quite a beating we understand!). Much thrashing about lead to our snubber breaking with an almighty bang during the night as the chain took up the slack (the snubber is a rope attached to the main chain to stop the grinding noise of the chain on the bow roller), that's a 12mm thick rope!

After things calmed down we headed north again and stopped at the Skellig islands, a very impressive lump of rock rising sheer out of the depths. A bunch of monks decided that they would do their monk thing on top of it 1300 years ago. The dwellings still exist in remarkably good condition with only minor repairs done for preservation,









home also to some very photogenic puffins!

Imagine what it was like up there 1300 years ago in a february gale ,it doesn't half make our force 7 sound whimpy! The monks where at the top (thats right at the top!) of the larger rock in the background, the nearer 'bird pooh' island is home to 30,000 gannets, thats a lot of bird pooh as you can see, it isn't snow!

Today we got the bikes out again for a 6 hour marathon into the Kerry mountains and over a pass by Irelands highest mountain (in the background), very similar to snowdon at just over 3000'.

The scenery was stunning,

and we passed some peat blocks cut from the bogs and laid out to dry, they really are still using them!





PS Guiness really does make you strong!

We passed some stunning scenery