China Girl, UK Circumnavigation - Year 5

Vessel Name: China Girl
Vessel Make/Model: Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 41DS
Hailing Port: Ipswich
Crew: Ann and Steve Crome
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26 September 2023 | Troon Yacht Haven
26 September 2023
26 September 2023 | Troon Yacht Haven
15 September 2023 | Ballydorn in Strangford Lough, county Down
15 September 2023 | Ballydorn in Strangford Lough, county Down
04 September 2023 | Arklow
04 September 2023 | Arklow
27 August 2023
21 August 2023 | Kinsale YC marina
21 August 2023 | Kinsale YC marina
21 August 2023
11 August 2023 | Lawrence Cove
11 August 2023 | Lawrence Cove Marina
05 August 2023 | Dingle
05 August 2023 | Dingle
24 July 2023
08 July 2023 | Port of Galway (still!)
30 June 2023 | Deerpark Manor B&B, Swinford, County Mayo
25 June 2023 | Galway Port marina
13 June 2023 | Clare Island, County Mayo
Recent Blog Posts
26 September 2023 | Troon Yacht Haven

Statistics

So, we made it all the way around Ireland at last. We've only been trying to do this since 2020.

26 September 2023

Made it...

From Bangor we need to get to Troon, CG's home for the winter. The weather is doing its best to stop us. Even at this late stage we had a few doubts about making it. It's spot the weather window again. Ray arrived on the 20th, a window opened up on the 21st to get to Glenarm, just up the NI coast [...]

26 September 2023 | Troon Yacht Haven

More rain.... Arrival of crew

Lots of rain in Strangford Lough. We arrived on the 14th, 15th we sat on the boat and watched the rain all day, did nothing, went nowhere. 16th we managed a quick hop from Ballydorn on the southern coast to Kircubbin on the north coast, about a 3 h trip sailing on the jib. A quick look around the village [...]

15 September 2023 | Ballydorn in Strangford Lough, county Down

From fog to rain

Carrying straight on from the last post. Dun Laoghaire to Skerries was 4 hours on the motor in winds up to only 7 kts, but at least it was dry. Since then our weather luck has changed. Skerries to Carlingford, 6 hours on the motor in rain. Carlingford marina has a very narrow entrance, so much so [...]

15 September 2023 | Ballydorn in Strangford Lough, county Down

Time Flies

Just found the time for an update, thinking the last had been about a week ago, only to find it's been nearly two weeks. Sorry folks. We've only moved CG five times, from Arklow to Dun Laoghaire (pron Leary) to Skerries to Carlingford lough to Ardglass to Strangford lough, 112 miles in all. The trip [...]

04 September 2023 | Arklow

Around the final corner

We left Kilmore Quay on the 2nd September to nip around Carnsore Point to anchor in Rosslare bay. The point is the end of the south coast for us and the start of the trip up the east coast to complete our circumnavigation. 3.5 hours mostly on the engine in little wind but a half hour sail towards the [...]

Proper storm!!

21 August 2023 | Kinsale YC marina
Ann and Steve Crome
So here we are in Baltimore harbour sitting on the anchor and watching the weather forecast like hawks. Storm Betty, our UK readers benefitted from it as well according to the news feeds. The forecast was saying winds up to 40 kts were coming our way, then it was 50 kts, then 55. Would our anchor hold? Should we move to a more protected location? Could we do that in the winds already blowing 25 kts? We phoned the harbourmaster for his opinion. He found us buoy to attach to (see photo). Two hefty and clearly almost new ropes to attach us. We were awoken about 0030 by the movement of the boat and the sound of the wind. It built to about 0130 and the began to subside. We didn't need to stay up but we would not have slept anyway. The shipping forecast for our area, Fastnet (funnily enough) was storm force 10 possibly reaching severe storm force 11. I read that one yacht further up the south coast broke its mooring and was washed ashore. We were shaken but unharmed. It was raining so hard nobody wanted to go into the cockpit to check the wind instrument. We would guess it was about 40 kts in Baltimore harbour.
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China Girl's Photos - Main
Seen on 1st trip from Penzance to Scillies
No Photos
Created 11 July 2019
A few photos of the collection of ships made out of matchsticks
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Created 2 June 2019
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Created 28 May 2019
No Photos
Created 27 April 2019

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