Wicklow Mountains Abeam (Somewhere)

Kilmore Quay was lovely, if a little haphazard in layout.  It's also a great place for fish and chips, right by the marina.  The portions were huge however, with two pieces of fish each, and we had to keep half for future lunch!  Perhaps we were given the wrong order?

Fish & Chips - Second Serving for Two

The entrance to Kilmore Quay is past a long, shallow bank, the tide swirling over.  It looks quite dramatic but the pilotage is not difficult, with some care.  St Patrick's Bridge buoys mark the safe passage to the East and we came and went that way.

It's strange how, even though the tides get nearly an hour later each day, our sailing time always seems to be very early.  The tides around here move at a reasonable speed, so it's important to make the best of them.  Our departure, on Monday 20th May, involved getting up at 03:30 for a 04:00 start.  We also had a ridge of high pressure giving us a light NE wind, fading later, so we tacked around Carnsore Point and on Northwards, then had to motor to reach Arklow. 

Arklow Marina

We are very fond of Arklow, even though the marina and its facilities are a little on the rough side.  We moored outside a large local yacht (owner very welcoming) and braved the showers, which were very refreshing, once I'd worked out which shower head was in commission.  Our favourite Chinese restaurant was closed for the evening, shame, but we enjoyed a fine pub supper with Guinness (again).

And so on Northwards.  The tide being a bit later next day, we slept in until 04:30 and we headed out into a very gentle wind and calm seas (high pressure still in charge).  With the main just filling and the engine at gentle speed we made good progress.  

Motoring in Mist and Flat Seas

We only had 23 miles to go and we moored up in Greystones Marina at 09:00, which gave us plenty more daytime to explore the town, and do some maintenance (boats always seem to be needing work).

Greystones Harbour Marina

Greystones turns out to be quite upmarket, a classy escape for wealthy Dubliners, so we were told.  The marina and expensive surrounding flats are quite new.  Our boat is somewhat dwarfed by the larger craft around us.  But it's Irish, so friendly and welcoming with very good bathrooms!

We are here for three days.  The weather is turning, perhaps to blow NW 7-8, so we are well tied on, bows towards the North, and cosy as can be.

Comments

  1. Bruce&CarolMay 24, 2024 at 12:07 AM

    Good progress- hope the weather settles down again soon. You are going the right way (N)- the weather in Devon is much colder than when we left Scotland!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guinness!

Image
At the moment the weather is always against us - very strong winds in the wrong directions!   So it was a wonderful relief to be able to sample some "proper" (i.e. Irish) Guinness in Carlingford last night after a long, trying week battling the elements. The Antidote In the last post, we were in Dunstaffnage Marina, waiting 2 days for the weather to improve. A Lovely Backdrop It's a good time to show you this special delivery we received from 5yr old Thomas, travelling with his parents on their 21'-9" Drascombe Cruiser, moored just ahead of us on the Caledonian Canal.  This was a thank-you to us after we charged his iPad. "Rapport" by Thomas At 06:15 on Wednesday 14th August, we finally cast off from Dunstaffnage and headed off to catch a fair tide through the maze of islands guarding the route south towards the Irish Sea. We were trying to time our journey to reach the entrance to Cuan Sound, where the fierce tide would start to flow south after 10:30....
Read more

Just In Time!

Image
The 10th of May was very busy for us as we prepared the house to be left and gathered everything we would need for the voyage.  Doug decided to add another thing to our "to-do list" as he had organised the handing over of our dinghy, Tamar Fortune to its new owner :)  We also needed to say goodbye to Cody Sailing Club, who we'd been hosting on their Weir Quay dinghy camp.  Oh and our much-needed Shetland charts arrived at lunchtime! Rapport on her Weir Quay Mooring Suffice to say, we were pretty tired by the time we had loaded everything on board and packed it away that evening.  Rosie had brought so much food that we had to be pretty ingenious to find enough spaces to stow it all!  As Doug said "it was lucky that the kitchen sink had been bolted down"! We'd only recently fitted the sails as we'd had to wait for good weather earlier in the week to have our mast down and the rigging replaced by Allspars in Plymouth, ready for this trip. But we were well r...
Read more

Reaching Home

Image
On the mooring in New Grimsby Sound, the weather was so warm that I even jumped overboard at one point.  I didn't stay in the water for long though, it was more refreshing than I expected. New Grimsby Sound - Fine Weather After two days of sunshine, the weather turned grey and we took the overland route (green on the chart, only advised with at least half-tide and rising!) over to St Mary's for an early start, next morning.  We sadly gave up on the idea of anchoring in The Cove (between St Agnes and Gugh) and the delights of the Turks Head public house due to a forecast of SSE breezes blowing straight into the anchorage. The 60 miles to the Helford River involved light breezes and we motor-sailed all the way.  Our Yanmar engine continues to run smoothly; nearly home!  Tuna fish leapt, as did their prey, trying desperately to escape them.  We were impressed by the tide generated lumpy seas around Lizard Point, which bore no relation to the wind strength. In Helfo...
Read more