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