Salve Marine and home

We like Salve Marine.

Definitely the place to stay and / or  leave your boat when visiting Cork.
Easy access and a nice long visitors' pontoon, that even I can cope with.
Great value. Free electricity. Diesel on the pontoon (with a nice long hose that reaches your boat).
Free showers. Massive engineering workshop. Short walk to an excellent Chippy and to a most excellent Pub Restaurant (The Anchor) with the best plaice I've ever eaten.  But most of all, a relaxed atmosphere, where we felt really welcome and where the owner and his team would sort out anything we needed.

Three days in Salve!
No sailing required.
A nice walk to Carrigaline along a riverside footpath made from the disused railway line.
Fish and Chips and the odd half of Murphys.
All very relaxing.

Here's Jean relaxing.

It was even sunny and warm .. it would be, now we've stopped sailing

Wednesday.
The marina owner gave us a lift to Cork Airport and we whizzed home via Ryan-air.

A couple of other things about Salve Marine.
1. When we came here first there were four penguins huddled on a small iceberg just west of the pontoon.
(I didn't comment at the time for fear of looking silly).
2. When we returned, the iceberg and its penguins had gone but I noticed two penguins playing chess in the Marina Bistro while the other two were relaxing on deck chairs.
It all seems slightly odd now I mention it.

Footnote:
Great to be home again.
Bonzo looked pleased to see us.
What our family pet and guard dog seems to be having difficulty with is, in essence, appreciating his role.
He is supposed to attack (eat even) intruders.  I retrospect, I'm not too upset about the tropical fish and Nibbles (the hamster) was getting on a bit and had probably already had quite a good life,  but the TV remote ...
Awesome digestive system that dog has.

Glandore to Glandore

So we made it to Glandore (24^th May)

We like Glandore (BSA level 5)

We anchored. Was this a mistake?

Read on Dear Reader (both of you).

25^th May

We flubbered ashore, walked to the ancient Standing Stones (Drombeg Stone Circle). Ireland’s second most visited Iron Age Set of Standing Stones. 

I told an American lady that Stonehenge was even older. I think she was (slightly) impressed (briefly).

Lovely. 

Great position.

Would make perfect Iron Age Barbeque site (perhaps that is what they were for?)

  Jean at Drombeg Stone Circle

Anyway, nice walk back to Glandore and the pub (The Glandore Inn).

Nice lunch, very nice half of Murphys.

Flubbered back to boat. 

Siesta.

Windy afternoon.

Windy wobbly night.

Adjusted anchor and bridle etc. four times.

Slept occasionally.

26^th May

Windy.

You get used to thinking that the anchor is going to pull out and drag and the boat will be wrecked. 

You get used to the anchor bridle groaning and straining and threatening to snap.

Too windy to go ashore.

I was up on deck, worrying about what to worry about next, when the flubber blew over in a gust and capsized, complete with outboard.  Eventually we righted flubber and salvaged the outboard, which was full of water and certainly not going to run.

Now totally stuck on board. Far to windy to row ashore.

Anyway, the forecast said that the wind should ease this afternoon.

After much discussion decided to “go for it” at 1700.

1700 hours.

Up anchor

We set off across the smooth harbour waters and out to sea.

F7 on the nose. Waves as big as … whatever ... very big things.

After 2 miles, we turned around, back to Glandore.

We decided to splash out and use a “visitor’s mooring”.

It was a little windy as we tried to pick one up. 

I lost the first boathook overboard, but we eventually retrieved it.

Next off we picked up another mooring and (Jean) lost the other boathook.

This mooring was so near to the next one, that having attached ourselves to it, we banged into its neighbour.

Anyway, having picked up all our boathooks and grabbed another mooring we went to bed (without even a glass of wine) and didn’t sleep a lot.

Midnight, a French boat arrived and attached itself to the mooring (7 metres away from us) that we had rejected 4 hours previously.  After a brief explanation of why this was a bad place to park, it departed in surprisingly good spirits.

27^th May 0400

Yes, 4 in the bl**dy morning.

We got up and set off.

The wind had dropped.

Foggy but flat.

We motored towards Cork.

We saw the land occasionally.

I learned how to work the radar.

We saw a huge mega cruiser “Air”.

  Yacht  "Air"

We saw a Sunfish

 (Nice picture of someone else’s sunfish, thanks)

We saw some dolphins or  maybe porpoises, just outside Cork Harbour.

Now here’s a thing ..

As we motored past the first dolphin (or very large porpoise), it dived. 

Then we saw two porpoises (or very small dolphins) and they both dived. 

Then something hit our rudder, really hard 4 times in a row (hard enough to turn the wheel in my hands). Dolphins aren’t stupid, I don’t think it can have hit us repeatedly by mistake…. was it attacking us?

We saw the (biggest) dolphin once more after that, swimming away behind us.

Anyway, we motored on to Crosshaven and Salve Marina.

We like Salve Marina.

As the man who helped us tie up said that it is , “ the most relaxed marina in the world”.   

I think he’s right.

Paradise lost?

Lawrence Cove Marina is on the beautiful little Island of Bear, at the eastern entrance to Bearhaven which leads into Castletown Bearhaven  … apparently the second deepest natural harbour in the world (after Sydney). 

Not surprisingly it has been fought over by the English and Irish and the French. 

The English took it in 1601 (Bear .. not the marina)  and built a fort.

We had a nice walk to the headland, round the fort and through the village (Rerrin), which has a Pub and a Post Office.

Reeds Almanac 2012 mentions Lawrence Cove Marina.

I note:

Alongside Berths Euro 1.52 [per metre], and

“Friendly welcome at the only marina between Kinsale and Dingle”.

Unfortunately none of the above appeared to me to be entirely (slightly, even) accurate. 

So to avoid further disappointment … if you do visit, I suggest you insist on getting the price of everything before you buy it.    Thank Heavens the diesel pump wasn’t working.  … and the welcome?

Oh, and there is another marina between Kinsale and Dingle (on Sherkin Island).

Lovely spot though.

Enough said?

Next stop Glengarriff.

A very pretty little place where almost no one lives.

A bay full of islands covered in Rhododendrons.

We had a nice walk surreptitiously stuffing litterbins.

Time to think about heading home.

Glengarriff to Glandore (60 miles!)

We set off at 0610 in fog. Motor sailed the length of Bantry Bay without seeing land.

Got around Mizen Head against the wind, the tide, the fog and the weather, heading for good old Sherkin Marina, when, low and behold, the fog clears, the wind drops, the waves vanish and THE SUN COMES OUT and we decide to plod on further.

Managed to make it to Glandore (which carries a BSA  .. Bramah Seal of Approval  .. level 5). It’s lovely here (obviously).

Had a beer in the sunshine.

Footnote:  I’ve just finished a book (Maiden Voyage) about a girl whose father suggests that she sails around the world alone, in a 24 footer … so she does.

I’ve been thinking about Bonzo and our old Mirror dinghy, he’s usually up for a challenge. (Canine Voyage?)

Crookhaven to Paradise

Crookhaven was nice but the weather was cr*p.

Next stop, back East to Baltimore. 

Baltimore has a floating pontoon for yachts during the summer months, with water available by hose and Murphys by tap. Summer normally starts in May, but as it has been raining and cold, summer has been cancelled in Baltimore and there is no pontoon yet.

We anchored and flubbered ashore.

We visited the “Craft Shop and Information Centre”.

The nice lady in the shop had an English accent and was unable to answer the obscure and challenging questions put to her by Professor Dr. A.J. Edwards.

He opened with a tricky one: “Do you have a bus timetable, please?”

“Err… No.  You could ask at the Pub.”

Next: “How do I book a taxi, please?”

“Err … You could ask at the Pub.”

We went to the Pub.  The nice bar lady poured us a pint and two halves of Murphys, gave us a bus timetable and booked Al a taxi.

Next off .. getting rid of rubbish.

You go to the shop and buy a coupon for a plastic bag and code number for 6 Euros.

You then put your rubbish in the bag and type in the code and push the bag into the special steel rubbish silo.

Alternatively, you leave your rubbish next to the silo, get back in the flubber and go back to the boat.

We chugged away from the metropolis of Baltimore to “Sherkin Island Marina”.

This is about a mile away, on Sherkin Island.

This marina is open because summer lasts all year on Sherkin Island.

The electricity is bust after the “terrible storms last week” (must have been something of a local weather aberration), but the water was working and with three lengths of hose, some insulting tape and a few cable ties (to hold the valve open), we filled Albatross’s capacious water tanks.

The sun came out, seabirds soared by and scantily dressed virgins frolicked on the sandy beaches.

It just happened to be Sherkin Island Art Week.

Basically, as I understand it, Dublin University Art Students can, during their course, live, eat, sleep, do art and smoke dope on Sherkin Island, receiving instruction and inspiration over the Internet.  When degree-time comes, these students display their art in various houses and ruins all over the island.  During the week in question, proud parents (of the students) can come over and wander around the island admiring the work of their gifted children.  Tourists (like us) were (this being Ireland) naturally, made extremely welcome.

We had a good wander and one art centre even opened 2 hours early in our honour.

On reflection, I suspect that the distribution and consumption of dope by various students may vary significantly, as did the tangibility (to me) of some of the art presented.

Or, put another way: some of the art may be easier to appreciate if you are stoned as well.

 

 Sherkin Island Motor Museum

Anyway, a lot of it was very interesting, beautiful even, and we had a nice wander around the island in the sun.

Sunday.  Al went home today. We will miss him.

There are no direct flights from Sherkin Island (unless you can find some very strong grass).   Al’s journey therefore went ..

walk to harbour,

ferry to Baltimore,

taxi from Pub to Skibbarean

bus to Cork

bus to Cork Airport

plane to Newcastle

etc.

While Al tested most of the transport network of the British Isles, we had a nice day off on Sherkin Island.  Walks etc.

Monday.

Up at dawn (0800  .. dawn is surprisingly late in Ireland in May) and off to Lawrence Cove on Bear Island in Bantry Bay.

 Apparently there is a heat wave in Ireland today.

 It was foggy at sea but very pleasant none-the-less.

We sailing within 2 miles of The Fastnet Rock, but barely saw it, thanks to the fog.

Arrived in Lawrence Cove 1400 hours.

This is place is lovely, sheltered, quiet. Electricity, water and diesel on the pontoon; the last of such supplies available going west for several hundred (possibly thousand) miles.

The diesel pump is broken (“since that terrible storm”)

Footnote:

Avid followers will be anxious to hear news of Bonzo (our family pet and guard dog).

Bonzo has unfortunately had to “leave therapy early”.  As his therapist explained, "what is the chance of an aggressive psychopath with the brain power of a turnip gaining any useful insight into his condition when this only motivation (other than attacking members of the public)  is essentially a complex algorithm of the oestrogen concentration of the dog pee left by the corgi on the lamppost across the road?"

Enough said.

Kinsale to Crookhaven

After a second day in Kinsale and a walk to the Other Fort (James Fort), not to mention a quick trip up the mast to lubricate the furler, we set sail at dawn (0800) for Castletownsend (Castle Haven).

We arrived at Castle Haven no obvious signs of scurvy amongst the crew.

The weather, indeed the very forecast, is a challenge.

To summarise, today was WNW by W veering to NNW by W, F 4-5, occasionally 6.  squally showers. Total absence of giraffes.  (The latter was a blessing, we think.)

We like Castletownsend, its Pub sells Murphys, and its Irish Protestant Church has very nice stained glass windows. We had a nice walk in the sunshine and met a very pleasant English octogenarian who lives in the converted village hall, complete with a sundial that runs 14 minutes slow. (Oil on canvass below by Dr Edwards).

Next stop Schull.

We had a good sail in good weather and saw what I think was a Minke Whale or what Al and Jean think was a Bottlenose dolphin.  Now whether you to choose to believe me (a doctor)  or my wife (a lady .. with a degree in Natural Sciences) or Al (a mere Emeritus Professor of Marine Biology) is entirely up to you; however, IT WAS A WHALE  (so there).  Anyway it was too big to a bottlenose (max size 3.5 metres) and too dark in colour, even if the dorsal fin was about right.

Schull was nice.  We went for a walk.  We had two nights on the mooring.  Al cooked beef in Guinness.

Today.

Today it has rained.

We motored over to Crookhaven.

(F2-3, rain)

We all agree that it was a small porpoise that we saw en route.

Al had Clonakilty sausages (made out of blood and stuff) followed by two cold special, lard enriched, economy sausages for lunch.

I had a bacon butty.

It is still raining, but we are moored only 100 metres from O’Sullivans (the pub).

May be Murphys’ time soon.

Castletownsend tomorrow ..maybe

We like Kinsale.
Had a couple of nice walks to the forts

Here's a picture of a Wheatear we spotted.

Time to sail on tomorrow, weather permitting.

Kinsale

We like Waterford.

Johnny the Marina Manager is welcoming, friendly and wonderfully helpful.

We had supper at “Doolans”. A Pub ... well, to quote their leaflet “Waterford’s most unique pub”.   

This begs the question: How many unique pubs are there in Waterford?

In celebration of our visit, we bought an Irish courtesy flag, a piece of hosepipe and a dongle.   

(Irish dongles are much better than English dongles.)

We met an Australian.

I said: “what are you doing in Ireland?”

He said: “getting a sun tan and improving my English.”

Next stop Youghal.

We sailed there … well, motored.  It was windy, rainy, foggy, wavy, rough, cold and it took about eight hours and it was beating all the way.  Jean wanted to go home (so did I).  But Youghal was nice.

We picked up a mooring.  Had supper. Slept.

Next day was sunny and the wind was from behind us and we decided not to go home.

We sailed to Cork.  

(Crosshaven Actually)..  Salve Marine.  

Very friendly, sheltered.

Al arrived from Newcastle.

We went out to supper at The Anchor.  The fish was wonderful.

We were going to have three days off (at least) in Crosshaven, but we didn’t.

From Crosshaven we set off for Kinsale.

Beating.

We made it to Oyster Haven.

“Quintessential Anchoring” the book said. 

Lovely anyway.  

Very peaceful.

This brings me to Sunday … today.

First off, a message from Linda.

Apparently Bonzo has had a go at the RSPCA Inspector, but he’s pretty much OK (Bonzo anyway).

Bloody animal  (can you have dogs re-castrated ?)

Anyway, Oyster Haven to Kinsale was only about a mile and we arrived at Kinsale Yacht Club in sunshine in time to witness the holy blessing of a ship. (My own view was that it should have been the crew and passengers who were blessed given the rust on the blessed boat). 

Anyway, bagpipes, speeches, processions etc.  All very nice.

Still sunny!

Lunch, in the sun, on the boat.

Nice (sunny) walk to Charles Fort.  Very impressive.  Built in 16’ something to keep the Catholics out.  Full of Spanish tourists.  Obviously failed in its primary aim.

Dropped in at the pub on our way home.

I like Murphys.

Safely in Waterford

Bonzo may have been sad to see us leave … but who cares ?

We had hired a “Corsa or equivalent” and got a “Polo” almost a Skoda.

Very nice to see Helen and family in Bristol, the Lizzy et Johannes in Barnstaple, then Angela and Martin en Sancreed  then back to el boato in Newlyn.

We met Dave on the pontoon.  The boat was well and happy. We slept anxiously.

Saturday: winds NE 4-5 maybe 6 going SE. We decided to go for it.

The very nice guy next to us said NE going NNE.

He was right.

0830.We set off from Newlyn.  Target Dunmore East.  Wind F 5 NE  (NNE F6) … got headed steadily to NNE. 

Quite cold during the night .

Dark from about 2100.

Bright full moon and Venus.

Lots of  porpoises. 

Bloody cold. 

Sailing quite fast, through the night, close hauled in F6. 

We both had brief sleeps.

The sky brightened at about 0500.

More marine mammals. 

Eventually arrived outside Waterford 0900.

Dunmore East looked lacking in shelter for the approaching SE breeze.

Opted for Duncannon anchorage.

Slept. Bliss…

Up for supper.

Slept … horrible.  Terrible exposed wobbly anchorage as wind went SW (not SE).

Up at 0800. Off at 0930. Motored to Waterford.

Moored.

I love Waterford Marina.

It's a dog's life.

Bonzo seems a lot calmer after Monday’s trouble, but unfortunately they couldn't save the poor Postman’s finger.       Why he put his hand through the letter box again after the last episode is still a mystery.

I'm surprised that we haven’t found the wedding ring in his poo yet.