Hi all,
Well another small weather window openned up for the good ship Emerald so we decided to go for it! We knew we'd have to motor for quite a lot of the trip with the wind heading us unfortunately, but sometimes that is just the way it goes so it was on with Victor the volvo and slow progress to the south in lumpy wind over tide seas, bang, crash hissssssss, creak. Bang, crash, hisssssssssss, creaaaakkkkk, oohhhh that was a big wave! We did the trip in 12 hours though, making an average of just over 5 knots, not bad in the conditions, and things eased considerably once we got into Dublin Bay, and then had permission to enter the Liffy River to head up to Poolbeg yacht club. Fabulous to see a large alongside pontoon, easy approach and two club members out to take our lines and help us tie up. It is the little things like that which make a difference after a tiring passage.

We had an evening on board relaxing and tidying up, followed by boat chores the morning after, then it was time to head into the fair city, to relax and partake of a little of the 'culture' of the city (as you can see from the photo). We first wandered around the city and Trinity College, before heading to the Temple Bar area to take in the sights, enjoyed some great buskers, Harry and Alfie (google them), before retiring to the first of several imbibing institutions ;-) Heavenly!
As you can see a religious theme developed throughout the day, being served by no less than 'John Paul'in our first pub.

Then you can see, I exclaimed 'B'Jasus' when seeing the price of a pint!



Many hours and several institutions later, including some great live pub music and jumping bars (I could live here, but I'd be skint and in need of a liver transplant in a very short time!) we wandered our way back to Emerald. One other point of note is that in our last pub a complete stranger came up to us and presented us with two pints of guinness. They'd seen us on Emerald taking on diesel in huge amounts at the yacht club, and wanted to wish us a good onward voyage as it looked like we were going on a long journey. We were very touched at this kind and thoughtful act. We shall pass the gesture on to someone in the same way in the future. Random acts of kindness do make a wonderful difference, it made our Dublin stop over.
The following day was rather a wash out due to rather too much fun by the skipper, but we restocked our supplies from a nearby supermarket, had a pilgrimage to the new Irish rugby stadium at Lansdown Road (awesome!) and then decided it was ok weather wise to take a shot at a trip to North Wales leaving at first light the next day. Tally ho!

Slainte
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PS Phil whiskey tasting at Islay went well, we have a small collection building for special occassions.
PPS Vicky Great to hear from you, glad Earl missed Osprey and all is well. We've got a couple of hops to reach winter quarters, a bit of a shindig then stuck into the winter work list!!
PPS although it looks like I've had rather a lot of guinness in the photo this was the first or second pint of the day, honestly mum!