I mentioned in the last blog post that I would write again from the balmy anchorages of the South West of Ireland, visit those places I did, balmy it most certainly was not, like most of the Islands of Britain and Ireland, the summer has yet to turn up, and to be fair, most of Northern Europe is having the same weather so I am not alone in spending days at a time in the pishing rain with a few lovely days thrown in, and again, as a child brought up on the west coast of Scotland, this kind of summer weather is nothing new.

So, I am writing from somewhere balmy, but not the Southwest coast of Ireland.


Angus the shiny new Autopilot.

Anyway, enough of the whinging, shiny new autopilot turned up was installed successfully so away we sailed south to Arklow, last time I was here I anchored in an old quarry, this time I went up the river and went alongside on the pontoons there so I could visit the town, nice wee place, drank some of the black beer, and very nice it was too.


Up the river in Arklow.


Arklow River.

Next, we were off to Cork, had an overnight stop at Dunmore East but never went ashore, got in late and was leaving early doors, got to Cork late so I went up the East passage and anchored the boat at the back of Great Island which is the Island that Cobh is on, what a beautiful place, you would never think you were so close to the city.


Anchored behind Great Island, Cork.

Went across to Monkstown the next day, there's a wee marina there, most visiting yachts go to Crosshaven where all the yacht clubs are, but this place was closer to Cork city and as it turns out, the friendliest most helpful marina that I have visited yet.


Cork Harbour Marina, Monkstown.

Cork is a lovely city, very friendly, went to visit the old prison there which has been refurbished to what it would have been back in the day, interesting stuff, nae television and duvets in your cell back then.


Cork City Goal.

Also visited the military museum at Michael Collins Barracks, another super interesting place, I got a guided tour from Seamus who's the man in charge there, he was telling me when the British handed the barracks to the Irish Free State forces after the Irish War of Independence, they stuffed all the chimney places with ammunition so it would go off when the free state forces tried to light the fires!


Michael Collins Barracks.

I might have managed to do a bit of tasting of the three different stouts you can get in Ireland, Guiness of course, but also Murphy's and Beamish, you know, just for informational purposes!

Visited the Titanic and the heritage exhibition in Cobh, the tickets give you a random passenger from the titanic, and at the end you get to find out whether they survived or not, would you believe it, both of mine drowned!


First lucky passenger.......drowned!


Second lucky passenger, also drowned! Just as well I'm not superstitious eh!

Had some decent weather in Cork which was great, sailed out of the harbour and straight into the middle of the "around Ireland yacht race" fleet, tried racing them, got smashed! I was trying to get down to Glandore, but I had the wind on the nose and was tacking the boat all day so went into Oyster Haven for the night.


Anchored at Oyster Haven.

Got down to Glandore the next day, done some more stout tasting, clear winner coming out here for me 😊


Glandore taste test.

Next was Baltimore harbour, the winds were strong from the west, so I anchored in the lee of Sherkin Island, which turned out to be a great idea, beautiful wee Island, with a pub......of course.


The entrance to Baltimore harbour with Sherkin Island in the background.


Anchored at Sherkin Island.

After a couple of nights it was a big day up to another Island and my favourite place in Ireland so far, Bere Island in Bantry Bay, arrived in the wee marina there in the teeming rain, so I had to go to the only pub on the island to dry out 😊 the barman was an exiled Scotsman from Edinburgh, who had retired here as his wife was from the Island, I could retire here in a heartbeat, its amazing, you should go.


Lawrence Cove Marina, Bere Island.


Bere Island.


Bere Island.

From Bere Island it was Northwest to Dingle, which was to be my final stop in Ireland, the main reason for the visit here was a bit of a pilgrimage to visit Annascaul, birthplace of Tom Crean, who was an Antarctic explorer back in the day who had been on the expedition south when Captain Scott popped his Clogs, he was also with Shackleton when HMS Endurance got trapped in the ice and was one of the crew in the open boat voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia. In his retirement from the Navy he opened a pub called, funnily enough, "The South Pole Inn" which is still there and still serving pints of the black stuff for me to taste, including one named after the man himself.


Your man Tom Crean.

There is a book about him called Unsung Hero, you should read it.




The South Pole Inn, tasty pints to be had here.


Monument to Mr Crean, Annascaul.

Dingle itself is lovely, certainly very twee, but friendly, has the cheapest marina in Ireland, and is jammed full of American tourists who are more than willing to explain to you just how Irish they are.


Dingle.


Dingle Marina.

I was waiting here for a weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay to Galicia in Northern Spain, as the summer weather so far has been so changeable, we were never going to get the perfect window so I picked the first half decent one and shot off South, turns out the weather forecast was bollocks 😊 but it wasn't so bad, I actually had a lovely sunny day to leave Ireland, then the next few days were a mixed bag of fast and furious interspersed with heavy rain and light winds, Biscay is famous for its weather so all in all I had a decent passage, the last twenty four hours is pretty interesting as you have all the commercial traffic heading to and from the English Channel to the traffic separation scheme at Finisterre, so no sleeping going on there. I arrived in A Coruna after five days/four nights at sea, and wait for it, yep, in the rain! Man, you could'nae write this.


Sunset after leaving Dingle.


A Coruna.


Tower de Hercules, the lighthouse as you come into A Coruna, build by the Romans 2000 years ago, still works, I believe its had a refurbishment or two since then though.

Spent the first night at anchor and woke up to a beautiful sunny morning and went across to the marina Coruna to give the boat a wee bit of love and store up for the next part of the journey south.


The marina at A Coruna.

Also took the train to Santiago De Compostela, which is the old capital city of Galicia and famous for being the place that a lot of religious Pilgrims finish their walks on the Camino's (way of St James) which are trails from all over Europe. Visited the Cathedral and watched the Pilgrims coming in, lots of limping and knee braces in evidence.


Fancy church, Santiago de Compostela.

From A Coruna, I worked my to sail round Cape Finisterre, which is also Famous for high winds and rough seas, so when the conditions are right, all these yachts appear and head for the Cape, I went round on a beautiful day surrounded by Dolphins.


Cape Finisterre.

I ran up to the lighthouse the next morning, passing quiet a few pilgrims, this is also part of the Camino, this is where the hard-core pilgrims finish their walks at the cape after visiting Santiago de Compostela. Back in the day, the Romans thought this was the end of the world.


Anchored on the beach at Finisterre.


Finisterre from above.


Ran past this sign on the way up the hill, couldn't quite work out whether the P was for picnic or poo:-)

So now I am exploring the Spanish Ria's, I write this tucked up at anchor off a town called Muros, expecting strong winds from the North today so I'll stay here tonight and catch the coat tails of those winds south tomorrow, the Portuguese trade winds or the prevailing winds through the summer are from the north, so it should be mostly downhill sailing from here till I get down to the bottom of Portugal, fingers crossed it'll be balmy weather, board shorts and bare feet for the rest of the summer.

We shall see eh!?


Anchored off the beach at Praia de Sardiniero.


Anchored off Muros.


Muros from above.