La Caruna 13th Oct

La Caruna

Snow White in Marina Caruna

Sitting in La Caruna and although it is dark, I am in shorts, t-shirt and bare feet, oh bliss.

We left Kilmore Quay on the 7^th in glorious sunshine with a two day window to get South of the next low, the wind was 4-6 N to NW so I put up a double reefed main and 2/3 jib and we bowled along at 4-6 knots, the cross waves meant moving about was difficult and the autopilot was working hard, which in turn meant the batteries were taking a beating so I had to run the engine to recharge them every 8-12 hrs, for about 3 hrs. The autopilot has developed an annoying habit of setting off a shallow alarm which cannot be disabled unless I re-set it, especially since the depth and speed transducers are no longer connected (the display controlling them packed up in the Irish sea) it can work happily for ten hours then goes off every five minutes.

On the morning of the 8^th and 9^th dolphins played around the boat for a couple of hours, possibly seeing us safely out of Irish waters? The only other sea life was a sole Risso,s dolphin around midday on the 10^th which swam under the bowsprit turning on its side every now and again to check if I was still watching, otherwise just the odd sea bird for company one of which dodged under the bowsprit a few times like an avian dolphin.

About half way, inevitably at night (between 7pm and 10 am) came across batches of between 5 and 12 large boats going north and or south at between 10 and 30 knots which we had to weave through, again AIS is a great aid since it tells us not only what speed and direction they are doing but also if they are turning and which way! By this time the wind had died to a Southerly 1-2 so we were under motor with the main but still only making 2-5knots. The last 2 ½ days were spent under motor not stopping the donkey until safely tied up.

I knew we were nearing land when coastguard radio started coming in off France in French and off Spain in Spanish and English, getting close to Spain La Caruna port radio came on to say visibility in the port was zero and ships should exercise caution! I was in clear but overcast conditions so bumbled on and fates favoured us by clearing the mist as we approached (leaving it until we were less than a mile out), Marina Caruna had plenty of space and having been directed to pontoon 4 I picked an empty bay and tied up safely, and guess what it is a holiday today!

After the sunshine heralding our departure from Ireland we never saw it, apart from the odd flash, until tied up in Spain, it was on the horizon but we just couldn’t catch up with it! Just layers of cloud and the odd drizzle, although the nights were light with a full moon, which showed itself occasionally.