Monday 30th August 2021, Darrynane Bay to Crookhaven
Time was moving on! We had to be back in Portishead for early September in time for Vinnie to go back to college. Today we checked the longer term forecast, and saw that a big Atlantic low was expected to hit Southern Ireland next week, which could potentially trap us in the Green Isle. I can think of worst places to be stuck, but Vinnie would not have appreciated it. So we decided we needed to make some headway by getting round two major headlands, Dursey Head and Mizen Head and back in to familiar territory that we had already explored a couple of years ago. Unfortunately this meant that we would have to sail past the Kenmare River which we hadn’t visited before, and across Bantry Bay which we had already explored extensively, but which we had definitely fallen in love with.
So we pulled out of Darrynane bay that morning with a long sail ahead. It was a nice downwind sail down to Dursley Head with some great views of the Bull, Cow and Calf Rocks
Once we rounded Dursley Head all hell broke loose. The sea state picked up and we experienced a 20 knot headwind. That made for long difficult tacks around Mizen head and finally we managed to sail round the headland in the dusk and make it in to Crookhaven anchorage just before it got completely dark. We were both completely exhausted!
Tuesday 31st August, 2021, Crookhaven to Baltimore
The next few days looked horrible on the South coast of Ireland with East headwinds up to Force 6 but the forecast look good for crossing the Irish sea once the low blows through. We had an easy sail past Cape Clear and the Fastnet, then all hell broke loose again! Baltimore Harbour offered some welcome protection, and we anchored off with the wind still blowing about 20 knots, but the sea flat.
Wednesday 1st September, 2021, Baltimore
The wind continued to blow with some strength along the south coast, so we decided to stop the day at anchor in Baltimore. Infact we ended up staying 2 nights. Annoyingly, we could see the pub, but because it was about half a mile to the shore, and we could only rown the dinghy, we didn’t feel confident enough to row to shore in the strong wind. So the time was passed reading and playing cards!
Friday 3rd September 2021, Baltimore to Kinsale
The wind had finally settled down, so we left Baltimore at 8 30 that morning and enjoyed NE winds for the first 3 hours which got us as far as the imposing stags further up the coast. These ship killer rocks, appear to change shape as you pass them.
After passing the stags, the wind swung more to the East, so we did some long tacks to make more progress up the coast. The conditions were really nice with light seas. We made the last tack past the Old head of Kinsale and all the way in to the entrance to Kinsale.
We slowly made our way through a fleet of sailing boats racing, and made our way up the river through the town and dropped anchor in the river just south of the castle park marina. The plan was to head in to town for the evening, and get back for an early night as we planned to sail back across the Irish Sea to Milford Haven tomorrow. We headed in to town and ended up at Kitty O See’s for a lovely meal. You can’t go to any pub in Ireland without striking up a conversation! Same was the case here and we were soon chatting to the neighbouring tables, a couple on hols from the USA and a couple visiting Kinsale from Clifden in Connemara, whom it turned out lived 20 minutes drive from Leenane, where we had visited on the way down the West Coast. Several rounds of drinks later, we stager out of the pub at closing time! So much for the early night?!