Falmouth to Cork (Crosshaven, Royal Cork Yacht Club)

The forecast was just wonderful for a trip to Ireland. Light winds, decreasing sea state and low swell conditions. The lull would follow us all the way over to Ireland with the seas building behind us. Oh yes! Just a risk of fog patches which the radars don't seem to mind at all.

The only drawback was the departure time, to take advantage of some tidal help along the south coast and then north passing Land's End. Around 5:30am. Somehow, with such a lovely forecast, it seemed worthwhile.

We duly left the delights of Falmouth behind and enjoyed a pretty calm run all the way. A little swell left out in the Atlantic but only around a meter and a half on the bow, so some gentle nodding was in order. (Of course, it was at its peak just as the crew went below to prepare dinner).

You can see the route below:

Basically, you round Land's End, avoid the traffic separation scheme, then cross the corner of the Atlantic. Simples.

The "wobbles" in the long run across to Cork are as usual because we let the tide take us as it wished and steered a fixed compass course. We finished just off Cork only half a mile from the direct line so the guesstimated course to steer was pretty good. Overall it is around 184 Nautical Miles out to sea plus the distance escaping from Falmouth and entering the Cork harbour area. For those who love numbers, we cruised at around 1600rpm and it took 29.5 hours berth to berth.

For those who are more right brain dominated, the run started in cloud, passing Longships lighthouse with the Land's End visitor centre in the background you can see that it was pretty grey:

However, by the time we had reached the northern end of the traffic separation scheme off Land's End where we turned for Cork, the sun was out:

Whilst the crew was on watch, she had to quickly shut the pilothouse door to prevent a pigeon from flying in. As we were many miles away from the land we didn't expect to see one. Gannets - yes, loads. Pigeons, no. The crew reported that he was determined to land, making several aborted attempts when he slipped off the stainless steel guard rail before finally landing on the narrower guard wires. He looked a bit thin and definitely in need of a rest:

The crew felt sorry for him/her. The captain was less impressed when he saw the little presents that were left on board when he/she departed.

The leg from the TSS to Cork was 126 nautical miles so watch-keeping did not involve course alternations, new waypoints etc. It did, luckily, involve loads of dolphins and a spouting whale or two. Here is an example of the "loads":

And to prove that they were active and playing as well:

They just kept on coming:

Thanks to Andrew (aka Crocodile Dundee) who leaned over his bow for the picture, far braver than we were.

The whale spouts were a little further off of course:

The wildlife kept us very amused during the day. Sunset was equally appealing:

And another lovely view, spoilt only by a large lump of Nordhavn fibreglass getting in the way:

Perhaps this picture summarises what cruising is all about.

Overnight there was little other traffic about - a couple of fishing boats but nothing that caused us to divert our course at all. We did hit a fog bank - we knew as Andrew called us and said that our stern light had vanished. Apart from that, nothing else other than a lovely calm crossing to report. 

Our only little diversion was just off Cork when a dredger came out of the harbour, turned right in front of us, stopped then decided to move again just as we were overtaking it. Hardly a big deal though. The lighthouse at the harbour entrance was a welcome sight and a new addition to our lighthouse picture gallery:

This was the first time we had taken our boat to Ireland (The Republic, not Norn Iron of course) and the first time we had seen 08 degrees west on the GPS screen:

We had phoned the Royal Cork Yacht Club in advance of our departure to check that they would have berths for us for a week or so. They are, they say, the oldest yacht club in the world, founded in 1720. Calling them by radio was a pain as the Irish tend to use channel M/37 not 80 which is the norm in the UK. Our two lovely Icom built in radios are US spec and do not have channel 37 on them so we have to rely on a handheld instead. 

Berthing was amusing, initially the captain picked out the wrong set of pontoons but then realised that they did not belong to the yacht club (fortunately before we had tried to moor there). Dave the berthing master was great, he moved a yacht a little so we had space on a hammerhead and tucked Zephyros into a finger berth diagonally opposite us:

We now need to apologise to Norn Iron Ken for the number of Nordhavn 43 pictures in the recent posts. We are not trying to wind you up or depress you. Honest.

The welcome from the staff here was typically Irish. Very friendly and laid back. As the lady who completed our registration form said "the first thing we learn is how to get money from you" - but they do it so nicely! Actually berthing here is very reasonable and would have been even more so pre-Brexit and the FX rate collapse - 40 Euros / night and a deal if you stay for a week. We might well.

Maintenance news:

The boat behaved perfectly on the trip. The engine behaved itself impeccably as did the stern gland. The threat of repacking has clearly scared it! Nothing to report. Sorry to disappoint the spanner and oil types.