Kilmore Quay 3rd Oct

3^rd Oct

Safely tied up in Kilmore Quay with the wind whistling around, even the many fishing boats are tied up, and so I again play the waiting game for the weather to ease, at least I am now out of the Irish Sea. The trip from Peel was predictable in that I did not get any sailing

Leaving Peel at about midday (30^th Sept) the wind was the predicted 4 to 6 southerly, so we set off with a reefed jib, reefed main and motor running towards Carlingford for about four hours, then turned for the Calf of Man, on reaching this, the wind moved to the South East and dropped to nothing so we turned on to a direct route South and furled the jib. The fog rolled in at about midnight for the rest of the trip clearing only briefly from time to time, thanks to gps, ais and radar we had a fair idea of what was about. Just South of Dublin at about 8am a pod of dolphins joined me for a while and then in the afternoon off Wicklow a rather bedraggled starling landed on board and proceeded to eat the spiders which had colonised the boat in Peel.

The tidal currents started playing with us after Dublin, allowing us between one and six knots depending on the state of the tide, giving us an expected time of arrival about 8am which seemed fine arriving after daybreak. However these things never work to plan and being off Rosslaire in the middle of the night with thick fog and the tide turning (giving an eta about 4am) with a ‘Traffic Separation Zone’one one side and rocky coast on the other heaving to was not an option i was wiilin to consider, after passing Tusker rock the fog started lifting and allowed me to see the leading lights to Kilmore Quay, which has a very narrow entrance with large fishing boats tied up along the piers two deep restricting manoeuvring room further, but luck was with me in that the end pontoon was half empty, giving ample room and with no wind a fairly easy approach and mooring, the mist rolled in just as I tied up so I thanked the ‘powers that be’ for protecting us from the many lobster pots rocks and other perils on the trip, and went to lie down in my bunk.