Hello again Dear Reader(s). If the title of this brief blog isn't sufficient, please read on ..... you may remember that our intrepid trio have recently arrived in Arglass, Northern Ireland.
Our "day off" in Ardglass involved a very pleasant 4 mile walk along the coast.
A bird.
Eventually we arrived at a pub and after brief refreshments, walked home.
Supper at the ancient golf club was excellent, and also saved walking another 4 miles back to another eating house.
18 June 2023
To Arklow.
Despite Arklow's reputation for sewage, it is an essential stop for sailors who don't fancy calling in anywhere else en route (obviously). So we went there. We motored almost all the way and managed to get the tide running against us for the final two and a half hours. Before landing I was careful to give Will a thorough Health and Safety briefing. "Try not to fall through the hole in the pontoon because the river is full of shite, etc. ".
We had a "day off" in Arklow. This mainly involved walking up and down to the petrol station with cans of diesel, a brief sleep and an excellent meal at The Old Ship.
20 June
We set off for Penzance and arrived in Kilmore Quay.
All was going nicely and we were sailing (using only the wind for propulsion), when the clew came off the genoa. (Translation for non-sailing blog followers: The lower back corner of the front white flappy-thing tore off so that the ropes (sheets) attached to it were ... no longer attached to it, so it flapped).
Unable to continue sailing, we opted to divert to Kilmore Quay; motoring instead.
Kilmore Quay is well known for its excellent chandlery and they would be able to help.
The chandlery referred us to the next-door boat repair yard whose proprietor explained that the nearest sailmaker was in Dublin, probably.
The problem was simple. How to re-attach a rope to the corner a a bit of thick cloth in such a way that it would be strong enough to pull a six tonne boat through the water at about 7 knots. How hard can this be? We put on our thinking caps, broke into small groups, and came up with various ideas With a combined age of over 200 years and at least forty initials after our names, two doctorates and an M.Sc. , we produced the following ideas:
1. Jean could sew it back on
2. Will could sew it back on.
3. Peter could glue it first then Will and Jean could both sew it back on.
4. Peter could drill holes in the sail and rivet a metal dinner plate onto the clew, onto which a the sheet (rope) might be fixed.
5. Two lengths of yellow jack-stay webbing could be folded around the clew and holes drilled to take 8 x 6 mm nuts and bolts with 16 extra-large penny washers, thus forming two large loops , onto which the Genoa sheets might be tied.
6. We could motor to England.
We opted for Number 6.
21 June 2023
We refuelled (again) and set off for Newlyn (140 miles or so) at 1000 hours.
We had a strict 2-hour watch and sleep rota. As Skipper, I always went to sleep first.
After motoring for about 12 hours the sun set.
That is a terrifying photo of you wielding that hammer! I hope no boating equipment or sailors were harmed in the making of that photo...
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