China Girl, UK Circumnavigation - Year 5

Wow have we been lucky with the weather for Western Ireland, but all good things come to an end, we're hoping for a pause only.

We left Clare I on the 14th for Inishturk planning to overnight there but it's a very small island and we had exhausted its charms in a few of hours, so we set off at 1700 for Killary, the benefits of sailing in June. We arrived at 1950 having motored up one of only three true fjords in Ireland. Not up to Norwegian standards but impressive hills running down to the water each side and only 200 m wide in places, so well worth the trip. While there we got got the bus to Kylemore Abbey and Victorian Walled Garden, a very interesting place to visit and good sunny weather to do it in.

From Killary Fjord we move on 16 June to the Island of Inshishbofin (although as Inish means island in Gaelic I suppose it's rally just Bofin), 20 miles, mostly on the motor in light winds but with some rain. A great place for walkers and a pretty village but not a lot else to see.

We moved on the next day to Clifden, only 13 miles but all on the motor in virtually no wind. By the standards of the area Clifden is a massive place, actually it's about the size of Biggleswade. We found some good Irish music, one of the key aims of this part of the trip and stocked up the larder.

Two nights there and on to Bunowen Bay (the middle of the middle of nowhere) which meant rounding Slyne Head, on of the key places always mentioned in the Irish weather forecasts. Tides on this part of the coast are mostly weak and Slyne Head does not compare to places like Portland Bill or the Mull of Kintyre for the consequences on getting it wrong, but we did our tidal calculations, got there with the tide behind us and had no problems. Today there was....WIND. A beat down to Slyne Head but a really good sailing day. Bunowens Bays only claim to fame is an excellent fish smoking factory. We left with smoked salmon and mackerel and some gravlax.

On to Inishmore in the Aran Islands, 4.5 hours sailing and only 1.25 on the motor., which allowing for the time to moor and unmoor, means we sailed all the way. 27 miles. Another great sail. Now, as for weather; for the past few days the long range forecast has been warning of approaching heavy weather. Forecast arrival date of Friday 23rd. Our plan had been to get to Galway on Saturday the 24th, so we accelerated the trip, dropped a place out and planned our arrival on Thursday 22nd.

So here we are hiding in Galway Port Marina. Gusts up to F7 last night (28-35 kts) with intermittent strong winds forecast through to as far as the forecast goes on the 2nd July. By luck we had been planning to stay here in Galway until 6th, being joined by Steve Arnold for a week on the 5th. We have hired a car and are going inland from Tuesday 27th to Monday 1st.

Photo shows the trad Irish music and dance show we went to Sunday night; brilliant!