In his life in business, when trying to sell value, Iain often used the adage 'Cheap does not mean value'. This was definitely the case with our very cheap, read free, mooring in the outer harbour in Dun Laoghaire. The mooring had many qualities but principle amongst them were not access to shore in a F9 and most importantly stability. It was a mooring that would be great to visit, for very short periods, but not to live on. We had however gratefully grabbed the offer of a free mooring with both hands and it was all was good until the breeze really picked up. The met office issued a severe gale warning situated exactly where we were sat and in transit with the centre of the gale and the harbour wall was us. Not ideal.

The mooring was so rolly that Iain was actually feeling sea sick even though we were not underway and poor Ruffian was feeling each set of waves as they were running across seas to the wind. Ruffian did find a sort of rhythm but each bar ended with a snatch of lines loading on cleats and a sharp inhalation of breath by both Fiona and Iain. Ultimately this was not fun, not part of the plan and certainly not in the brochure. We also had our home to consider and an expensive marina for a couple of nights is cheaper than picking bits of you home off a breakwater after she's broken loose. It was just a pity that we only really realised this after a night of no sleep, massive stress and having to endure sleeping in the saloon as the forepeak was too noisy and bouncy to even get into.

We were supposed to be on 'holiday' after all and living on a boat is not supposed to be some sort of endurance test. We therefore succumbed to the sheltered accommodation of the marina, even after all the disparaging remarks that were made in the blog previously. So we went to slip lines in 40knots+ of wind. This is not an easy task when the wire mooring line is welded around the windless and sets of waves are coming crashing in through the harbour wall. Once off the mooring things didn't get any more fun or easier. Fiona had to manoeuvre Ruffian across the breeze and waves, put in 2 gybes and park downwind, whilst Iain clambered around the deck getting fenders and warps ready for the impending parking. Fiona excelled and Ruffian came to a happy halt alongside a finger pontoon where the waves and swell are abated but the breeze is still howling at gale force at the top of the mast.

The wind is set to be at gale force strength, and in the north for the next few days and the waves seen from both Ruffian and the harbour wall are enormous and scary. We will therefore not be going anywhere by boat in the short term.

That'll be quite windy then.


and scarily wavey.