Kinsale Yacht Club August 6

Crosshaven in the sunshine

pilotage is a tricky business

no 1 says its all a  breeze

Tall ship on the rocks 

A motley looking crew

Vincent the master baker with a soda loaf

Liam, Sam and Jude our visitors in Kinsale

Session in the Silent Banjo

Vin is getting the hang of the ropes

The weather at Kilmore Quay didn't look good, with a new low coming in and force 7-8s predicted. Looking at the Grib files we detected a small window where the wind came round to the South and moderated allowing a passage west to Cork. So we sampled the magnificent fish restaurant, spent more money at a very well stocked chandlery and asked the harbour master for his advice. "You won't be going out tomorrow lads and I won't be goin fishing" was the verdict. Thursday dawned the wind had eased so I woke up Clive and Judith who were berthed outside us and told them we were off. On the way out we spotted the harbourmaster in his fishing boat! It was quite rough following the storm the night before and during the day the wind progressively strengthened with a small craft warning of Force 7 in the late afternoon. Both Colin and I messed about in the cabin before coming up which resulted in us both redelivering breakfast over the Taff rail. We reduced to two reefs in the main and Kika reached across to Cork at 6 knots(8 over the ground with the tide). Colin got the seaman of the day award for cooking up soup despite seasickness and Vin cheered us up with Irish Jigs on the whistle in driving rain. We reached Cork at 21.30 and had a lovely sail up the estuary to a berth at the Royal Cork Yacht Club at Crosshaven where Clive was waiting for us to guide us in and take our lines. He had had a fairly rough passage on Sephina and at one point was taking my name in vain for forcing him out of Kilmore Quay. The delights of Cork which we sampled the next day soon restored him. A shopping trip to Cork city on the bus produced golf shoes for 10 Euros, I nearly got throttled for asking for a discount. The city was a delight. Cheerful friendly people and specialist shops for everything you could think of. There was a wonderful English Market with a real buzz selling fresh produce. We slit up arranging to meet at the cathedral. There were 5! We left Cork for Kinsale and had a gentle sail over in light winds. Aired the parasail which didn't really get going in 7 knots of wind and saw the wreck of a three masted tall ship recently driven onto the rocks when her engine failed. Presumably the crew did not have time to hoist the sails to get her off the Lee shore. Kinsale was abuzz with Irish Bank holiday fever. We sampled the delights of the fish and chips shop which was doing a roaring trade . Vincent managed to create a perfect Soda bread loaf after an initial attempt at which the bottom burned off a supposedly oven proof plastic tin from Lakeland plastics. We were joined for afternoon tea by Louise Cook's sister Sam, her husband Liam and young Jude who enjoyed exploring the boat. They had driven all the way out from Youghall to find us. James patiently fixed the AIS which was faulty due to a loose connection and we went out to the Silent Banjo where we joined in a session at which a lot of Guinness was consumed and new friends made. We even knew a few of their tunes We are are now looking at Friday morning for the Biscay crossing to catch the high and our Spanish is gradually improving under Vincent's enthusiastic tutelage