Yesterday was a very wet cold rainy day, so we popped off in the bus to Kinsale, to have a look at this famous yacht haven and gourmet centre. Advertised on RTE1 as '58 places to eat in Kinsale - so you can't try them all in a weekend!'

The bus journey was long and in two stages, into Cork and out again. No direct bus. I'm glad I'm not driving a car in Ireland, all the roads and streets are incredibly narrow, fringed with buildings or trees, hedges right to the edge of the tarmac. A pedestrian just has nowhere to walk, and a cyclist would have problems too.

The Triangle Race boats were in Kinsale after their 240 mile first leg from Torquay. They were rafted up three deep on the pontoon, with many large colourful banners flying in the rainy breeze. We paid a short visit to Kinsale Yacht Club, cased the harbour for possible later arrival on our further travels, and repaired to a pub for a nice if overpriced pub lunch.

Somewhat underwhelmed by Kinsale, which fair dos probably wasn't at its best in stair-rod downpour, full of multinational tourists in polythene waterproofs and expressions of disgust! We spent a little time in an internet ccafe then caught the bus(es) back to the boat. I had got the call from the Volvo agent, however, and the part would be in my hands tomorrow!

Today dawned fair, but there were soon clouds again in the sky, and showers punctuating the otherwise sunny day. I stripped the boat of dirty clothes, towels, bedding etc, and headed for the laundry we had spotted up the street. Some marinas have commercial-sized washing machines and driers, this isn't one of them. It's only flaw, I may add, as it does have broadband.

Imagine my delight when the part arrived. I shot down to the boat, got out the screwdriver, and popped it into place. With bated breath we started the engine. Vera was in good voice, unfortunately so was the water alarm whistle and now the damn red light was not only on, it was flashing on and off in an alarming manner. *@@�**$!, we both said, several times. Our new part was just reflecting the existing fault more accurately! I headed for the cavalry, and a little while later an engineer called Ron came down and worked on the engine for a while, including running it hard in gear against the mooring ropes for about twenty minutes. But he had finally tracked down the fault, fixed it, and spotted something else that needed fixing, and fixed that. All within half an hour. Not only that, but on request he explained to me what had caused the fault, a dodgy multiplug attached to the engine, which sends all the sensor and gauge information to the alarm system. Two pins within the connection had been touching each other, shorting out and causing this wheen of grief to us!

Vera is again in perfect health, and not crying wolf any more!
One of the effects of being on the boat now for five weeks, is that my waistbands are somehow roomier! Recommended dietary plan, go sailing and lose weight! Combine that with our pet theory of 'Doctor Boat', how being on the boat can get rid of sore backs, stiff necks, bumps and bruises, because you get fit just keeping balance and moving around, and just don't notice things that would make you feel proper poorly or sorry for yourself at home!

Now we have a clean bill of health on the engine, we can think about our next moves, further west we think. Watch this space - but if nothing appears, it's because internet access is difficult or impossible. Keep the comments coming!