Jean says: Well, so much for Irish weather forecasts. All forecasts predicted a nice force three to four, but we ended up in the "Irish Sea Chop" with gusts of up to 25 knots for six and a half hours. We couldn't sail because the wind was directly on the nose, and we wanted to get to Arklow before dark, so we had to motor the whole way. Bob was heroically glued to the helm to work the waves, and prevent us from slamming down hard into the troughs, which seemed never ending. Sometimes sailing in choppy seas feels like being on one of those simulators that look like space capsules that you find at public 'attractions'. They give you an extreme experience of a choice of activities such as ski-ing manically down a mountain, driving at Brands Hatch or even ocean yacht racing. The difference is that they normally only last for about five minutes and not the best part of a day.
The 'sailing' part of today wasn't much fun at all, and we're glad to be tucked in to the marina in Arklow, even if we are half sticking out of the only remaining tiny berth.
It's not widely known that Bob has boats in his veins. Arklow is the home of the historic Tyrrell's boatyard. The boatyard built Gypsy Moth 111, and another famous boat called Asgard 11, which sank in the Bay of Biscay in 2007. We're not reading too much into that. We'd planned on visiting the relatives, but arrived too late this evening, and are off again tomorrow morning at 5.30 to catch the tides heading for Dun Laoghaire.