2001 - Republic
of Ireland
©
Humperdinck Jackman (Sergeant Pepper) - January 2002
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| We
sailed Sergeant Pepper from her home port of Penarth Marina, near Cardiff
in Wales, to the Republic or Ireland for our Summer cruise in 2001.
The goal was to test the boat and ourselves on a reasonably long trip (we
logged slightly over 800 miles in three weeks).
We motored out of slip in Penarth at 06:00 on
July 21st 2001, with my wife (Candy) and daughter (Natashia) and crew for
the first leg, Alan Jones. The plan was simple: using the Spring tides we
would ideally sail all the way to Kilmore Quay at the southwest corner of
Ireland. If the weather deteriorated or if we found we were all too tired,
then Milford Haven was an ideal point at which to break the journey. |
| As
it turned out, the trip to
Milford Haven was slow and very tiring, with headwinds almost all of the
way producing a steep chop. While we started in an F3, the winds were F5
on the nose. Of course we had six hours of foul tide running at up to 4
knots for part of the journey. By 23:00 we knew we wanted a break and we
entered the Milford Haven estuary and anchored at Dale Roads for the
night. |
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| 100 miles in 19 hours is not record speed, but we were all tired
from working right up to the last minute and then preparing the boat in a
few frantic hours the night before. The
only misfortune on this first leg was the failure of our masthead light
the moment we turned it on at dusk. As it transpired, the wire up the mast
was rotten so it was to remain impossible to show the correct lights for
steaming. The good news was that this was to be our only gear failure of
the entire trip. |
 |
Natashia,
(age 10) was excited about the prospect of seeing dolphins and doing some
fishing on the trip, but at this stage was a little scared. When we
visited the Neyland Marina the next day (in glorious sunshine) we gave her
the option of just cruising in the Channel for the holiday but she opted
to continue.
Alan had to be back at work on the Tuesday at the latest so
we saw him of to the nearby train station. |
| After
a rest day in Neyland we decided to press on, only this time we modified
our destination to Dumore East, with the fallback plan of putting into
Kilmore Quay. As our goal was to get as far west as possible, this seemed
to make the most sense. The journey was in idyllic seas, in fact it was so
smooth west of the Bishop light that we had to resort to the engine for
several hours. Until we were abeam of the Tuskar light, the winds ranged
from F1 - F3 out of the west. It was too easy. |
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The
South Bishop light was an impressive sight, with its row of jagged rocks
behind. You have to make some good progress to the north because of the
south going tides setting you toward the Smalls, a range of small islands
with no safety. |
|
After we passed Tuskar
things got livelier and soon we were in a steady F6 with waves which
seemed to get steeper and steeper. By the time we reached the Conningbeg
light ship, we were fighting hard to avoid be blown inshore with the
unpleasant prospect of a tack back out putting us no nearer our
destination. Nonetheless,
we made Dunmore East in due course, surfing down waves as we approached
the harbour entrance in the black of night. Anchoring was easy and the
holding good, but the anchorage is littered with crab pots so caution is
advised.
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| The
rest of the trip progressed smoothly under light winds and days of
sunshine. Most days we planned our next leg the evening before and when we
saw dolphins jumping we were only too happy to run the engine and play
with them for a couple of hours. In the photos, these
dolphins (there must have been more than two dozen) were so close you
could reach down and touch them. Every time we thought we'd seen all of
the tricks a wild dolphin could perform, they showed us something new. |
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| From
Dunmore East we sailed to Youghal, which we disliked intensely as a town
but we found the people to be remarkably friendly. We had tied up to the
Southern end of the pier with only inches of water below our keel. Due to
an error of tidal calculations, we returned to the boat to find her too
far below our rope ladder to reach and we resorted to borrowing a ladder
from the local carpet factory alongside the pier. |
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The
fishing along the Irish coast has deteriorated badly over the past twenty
years but we still managed to catch some 12 pound Pollock - as we passed
over Pollock Rock, about ten miles south of Kinsale.
Kinsale was delightful,
reached after an all night passage from Youghal - some extra wind would
have been welcome. Candy had taken the helm
from 04:00 and sailed through a racing fleet flying spinnakers at dawn. It
was a great sight to which to wake up.
After several days in
Kinsale we made the last westward leg of our trip, to Glandore bay, with
the tricky entrance identifying the islands of Adam and Eve. Adam is as
big and bold as any feature, but Eve is an insignificant blip hidden by
the shore. This caused us several minutes of intense confusion! Other than
that, the entrance is easy. |
Glandore
was lovely (except for the freezing cold showers at the local pub) and the
weather remained dry and settled. Several days were spent soaking up the
sun, exploring the rock pools, buzzing about in the dinghy and just
generally being lazy.
From Glandore we sailed past Kinsale and entered Cork, finding a vacant
berth at the famous RCYC. Perhaps it was the size of the club, but we
didn't feel there was any attempt to welcome a visitor. The visit to Cork
was enjoyable, but we were anxious to make tracks back to Dunmore East
where things were much more laid back. This was delayed a day or two while
I recovered from a nasty cold.
Dunmore was as we had left
it, but the weather was on the turn. Now we had steady F6 and rain
approaching. After a couple of days we realised that we were at the final
stage of our journey: the big decision was made the following morning when
we awoke to a gale.
The situation was risky
with boats dragging all around us, and we had a cliff face just 15 feet
from our stern (with deep water up to the cliff). After an hour of effort
we raised the anchor and put into the fishing harbour for fuel and last
minute provisions. A call to the Milford Haven CG was promising in that
they didn't expect worse than an F7, but the long range forecast indicated
an F8 was only a day or two behind.
We set off to Milford Haven
with our hearts in our mouths - the swells were enormous and there were
often breaking waves on top. It took 32 hours of non-stop sailing to make
Penarth 175 miles away and the seas didn't calm down at all until we
reached east of Swansea bay.
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