Dun Laoghaire to Penarth

Once more the weather forecasts and tides were not happy bedfellows. As we were in no particular rush to get back to Penarth we had thought that we could find a suitable weather window between the string of low pressure systems to get ourselves to Milford Haven. Well, there was something that was suitable but the "window" and the optimum tide times for the trip were wildly different. Grr. To add to the fun, trying to optimise the tides would mean arriving off Milford around 4am. Not a problem but the forecast had thick fog then together with a force 5 rapidly increasing to 6 SW airflow. How you get the thick fog and a strong breeze seems so unfair. 

Going into Milford with the radar isn't an issue. Avoiding the many pot markers as we head to anchor off Dale is trickier as thick fog renders the FLIR camera almost useless. Getting one wrapped around the prop in thick fog and darkness or even around a stabiliser would be very messy indeed.  So, plan B was hatched. We would leave Dun Laoghaire to take a favourable tide around St David's head and turn to head up the Bristol Channel before the wind really picked up. The further we go up the channel, the better the shelter would be and later on, the wind was going to drop again. This meant two compromises - around St David's Head would be bumpy (wind over tide F5 to 6) and we would have to push the tide heading up towards Cardiff, slowing down too so we didn't arrive at low water. Far from ideal given the strength of the tides up there but it was the only weather break we could see in the longer term forecasts.

We duly left Dun Laoghaire in benign conditions around mid-day on Sunday. We are a small speck on the harbour webcam:

There were plenty of local yachts around enjoying a late season sail and making us dodge around them. The sunny weather departed as we passed Muglins lighthouse off Dalkey:

which is not one of the prettiest that we've seen:

Once into the Irish Sea proper, the sea calmed down a bit, the sun tried again and the views improved a lot, although they were of open sea mainly:

Our route to St Davids took us across the tidal flow at a gentle angle so we'd calculated a course to steer that would let the South West going tide carry us down the Irish coast and then when the tide turned, the NE going tide would push us more across to Wales giving us a better angle to the SWly wind induced waves, allowing the stabilisers to counteract them better.  Only some shipping messed up that plan and we had to give up our nice angle to the building wave patterns. Dodging the shipping made things bumpier later on and caused this strange looking route showing the effects of tide and avoiding the big guys:

We arrived off St David's in the dark and the sea was pretty much as expected - a bit like a washing machine. Lots of pitching and odd wave patterns. Plenty of spray and the boat was being pushed around nicely. All very safe and well within the capabilities of a boat designed to make open ocean passages but a roller coaster ride for the humans on board. Partick the penguin took it all in his stride of course. Proper salty old sea-penguin. As we approached Milford Haven and could turn more to the east, so things settled down a lot and the stabilisers were sorting our a way nicer ride for us. The Ferry from Pembroke was departing, heading to Ireland. No picture as it was foggy but had we been able to see her, this is the "beauty" in all her glory:

They called us and asked if "red to red" was OK (ie passing port side to port side). They were assuming that we would turn to head into Milford, they didn't look at our destination (Cardiff, or GB CDF) on  our AIS data. When we confirmed that red to red was fine, they then warned us that the visibility inside Milford Haven was down to 25 metres in some areas. So glad we were not planning to head in and anchor, avoiding pot markers would have been mainly down to luck. We were happy not to test ours and we'd headed well offshore passing Milford as between Skokholm and the mainland, we've seen plenty of pots before.

As we began pushing the strong tides heading up the Bristol Channel so the fog became more patchy and a nice pod of dolphins came to play. That always makes the day look better and the crew did her usual cries of encouragement thing as they jumped clear of the water and played in our bow wave. Hard to get a decent photo or video though:

As expected we made slow progress into the tide, seeing that you are doing 2.9 knots over the ground does become a bit disheartening! We'd dropped the rpm to around 1450 from the earlier 1650 used all the way to Milford, just so we had a bit more water when we arrived in the Cardiff area and so we could take advantage of a bit of the flood tide for the final couple of hours:

The closer we got to Cardiff the less and less appealing the water was. Instead of the crystal clear blue stuff we've been cruising in all summer "up north", we had a brown silty muddy mess around us:

You can see how it resembles mud soup. Lovely. Luckily we don't suck in cooling sea water for our main engine - that stuff must wear out impellers and pump housings / faceplates rather quickly.

Here is the rest of our course, showing the long slow haul up the Bristol Channel to Cardiff:

We go away for a few months and they change things. The Aberthaw power station landmark is slowly being demolished and the big chimney has gone:

As we approached Penarth pier and seafront, a local photographer who has taken some great images of us before was out and about. He captured the muddy water and quite distinctive light conditions looking out to the islands:

Then as as we headed towards the Barrage locks:

Slightly fuzzy picture - it was taken at a very long range. We had to mess around a bit waiting for the lock time but were given "lock no 2" for the 6:45pm inbound lock by the Barrage Control guy. We duly tied up in the lock and waited. And waited, then waited some more. Just before 7 we finally called them to ask if we were waiting on another inbound boat or if there was a problem. The problem was that the barrage team had just changed shift and nobody seemed to mention that we were in the lock and waiting. A look out of the office windows would have spotted us but.... 

We had quite a while sitting like this:

then were let into the bay. A run up and down in the fresh water area behind the barrage let us exercise the wing engine and flush out the salt water sitting inside the cooling system from the last time it was used, heading into Dun Laoghaire. We also gave the main engine a good burn to help clear some carbon from the piston rings etc. That is why we have the odd squiggles in our final track:

We were very happy to berth in our spot after a tiring 32 hour door to door run. Some calm and pleasurable, some pretty rough, some very slow progress then an odd 20 minutes waiting in the barrage lock. The systems were shut down for the last time this cruising season after we'd covered around 1800 nautical miles since leaving Penarth.

Maintenance News:

As the main engine was nice and hot, we pumped out the engine oil ready to do an oil and filter swap the next day. We were not keen enough that evening to wash off the salt, that waited for the morning.

Euroland time and a bit of culture

Knowing how wildly expensive UK electricity is, we were surprised to find that Ireland can more than compete with the UK marina power prices. We went big and speculated 10 Euros on power. Extravagant we know but we were in that kind of mood.

Sometimes you arrive in a place and discover that "stuff" is going on. Well, Dun Laoghaire was hosting a female world championship sailing event. Plenty of dinghies chasing around the inner harbour area and then being recovered into a compound. It seemed unfair that the competitors had to wheel their own boat on a launching trolley into their allotted place in the compound - for a world championship you'd hope that they had a few folks doing everything for them. You can see the procession here:

and in this little video clip too:

Inside the harbour, was a sad sight. Somebody had lost their pride and joy - or perhaps it was no longer their pride and joy and had been a bit neglected?

No matter what, still a very sad thing to see. At the same time the marina staff were trying to recover a RIB that had been launched that day, later on had a tube detach and started to sink. It was one of those days where we walked back to the boat and lifted a couple of boards in the engine room, just in case.

We mentioned "stuff going on". Well, we also learned that the Orange leader of Trumpistan was visiting Dublin that weekend and then going off to his golf course for the Irish open competition.  You can guess where his priorities lay. Thanks to that, we needed to avoid Dublin and instead we took the DART train to Malahide. That place reminded us of just how well the Irish look after their properties and towns compared to some of the sad scruffy towns in Scotland. Here is one of the famous pubs:

and their wine shop:

We had a plan to visit the castle and grounds. Walking up the drive we saw that some european T20 cricket was underway with more security staff than spectators and also how to tidy up the stump of a tree that had to be felled:

Pretty impressive stuff and there were more examples too.

The castle had a bunch of tourists (so unlike us of course) who needed a picture of themselves in front of it:

In fact, it was almost impossible to get an image of the castle without somebody doing the grinning for the camera thing. We must be way too old to understand the desire to be photographed in front of everywhere you visit. The tour guide had a typically Irish storytelling ability and used it to the full although his strong Dublin accent might have impeded the humour from being understood by a few non-native English speakers. That was a shame as he was very humorous. The castle had been occupied by one family for 800 years, quite something. To learn more, have a look at this weblink.

During the days when the nasty English persecuted Catholics and wanted to prevent their worship, the family had communion in this room and behind the panelling was the required Priest's hole so he could hide if the wrong people appeared:

The castle had been handed over to the local government folks 50 years ago - the usual story of how to pay death duties on the estate. They were celebrating this with some odd artworks (again, too old to appreciate some of them perhaps) and in the great hall there was this banner :

making the rather tenuous link to the Shirley Valentine film that is also 50 years old. Odd kind of connection or have we missed something obvious? 

The gardens were impressive, one of the family travelled extensively and brought back lots of unusual plants. They had also established a butterfly greenhouse with some spectacular specimens. Naturally you would see different ones on each visit as the poor creatures only live for up to two weeks in their lovely home:

We failed dismally capturing some in flight that had vivid blue wings. You will just have to believe us when we say it was quite a spectacle. After a happy few hours there, we walked down to the marina and spotted another Nordhavn laying there, a 60 that we'd been on whilst she was for sale with the Nordhavn Europe folks. They are getting about a bit....

Our Saturday plans were thwarted - we wanted to take the DART train south to Bray and discovered that there was nothing moving south of Dun Laoghaire for the entire day, some maintenance work. Trust us to pick the one day when the line was being totally closed for our visit. Instead we stayed in Dun Laoghaire and went to the maritime museum. Very glad that we did. We learned about a ship's captain who became famous for his cable-laying activities between Ireland and the Americas and were a bit worried about how sorting out your toe nails can end up:

A centrepiece of the museum is an old lighthouse lamp / lens assembly that still rotates on a bed of mercury (carefully sealed in so as not to kill the volunteer staff or the occasional regular visitor):

You can see that the building is not a modern museum construction. No, it was originally a Seaman's church, very apt. They had one display that would have been very handy when we had a navigation bulb fail in Bangor and a second new one turned out to be faulty:

Perhaps a bit clunky and hard to attach to our modern navigation light but the idea is pretty neat. The volunteers manning the museum were helpful and friendly. A most pleasant way to spend an afternoon and to get a little education about the seafaring history of Ireland. It seems that Irish captains were instrumental in setting up many of the countries' navies in South America. There was also the sad story of the loss of RMS Leinster, sunk by torpedoes one month and one day before the end of the First World War and reckoned to be the biggest loss of life in the Irish Sea. More info on that is in this Wikipedia link. Rather amusingly, they also had a "Titanic artefact" area. Seems that everyone needs to claim some connection to the ill-fated liner. This was the most tenuous exhibit we could imagine. A light bulb from Titanic that someone had liberated before her iceberg disaster.  A bit sad in comparison to the Belfast museum and the exhibits in Southampton.

Last time we were in the Dublin area by boat, we had a visit from some customs officers who clearly needed to show that they had checked some visiting foreign vessels. All they really wanted to do was record the official registration number (we are Part 1 registered, like the bigger commercial vessels) so they had some information for their log. They really didn't care about the VAT status etc, what stores we had on board, if we had any prohibited things from the UK etc. This time, no visit, a wonderful lack of officialdom compared to visiting other EU countries with the boat, thanks to the common travel area.

Bangor to Dun Laoghaire

Although we were very settled in Bangor, the reality of Autumn was kicking in. As usual, the weather forecast showed one very windy day, then a calmer one, Naturally, the following week showed calmish winds until it became the current week when things reverted to the two day cycle. Jam tomorrow and all that. This shows the  nice peaky nature of the weather - the top is wave height off Norn Iron and the lower bit wind strength and gusts. an autumnal pattern of low pressure systems was firmly established:

There wasn't a weather window long enough to do the 32 hour trip to South Wales (Milford Haven area), However, there was a bit of a break that would let us get to Dublin without having some nasty head seas. What was the downside - well, a very early start that would be a bit bumpy until things calmed down. The tides and winds did not want to play nicely together,  Ideally, we would leave Bangor at 3am. Only then it would be much rougher out to sea. So, we opted for 4am to let things calm down a bit.

Leaving well before daylight meant replying on the FLIR to spot pot markers so we fired it up to check all was well:

You get to see the temperature differences between the boat structures and guard rails very clearly (black-cold).The image was a bit blurry as you can see so the lens had a good clean ready for silly o'clock the next morning. A 3:30 am alarm was not ideal. Things were still a bit windy as we crept out at low water with not much depth under the keel. Here is how the "office" looked underway:

Heading between Donaghadee and the Copeland Islands you get some serious tidal streams that try hard to push the boat off course which is tricky as the channel isn't that wide or straight anyway. This shows the level of tidal help and it hadn't reached peak flow yet either:

10 knots over the ground, 6.5 though the water. Pretty good really, although the captain didn't spend too long enjoying it. He was busier making sure we stayed in the wet bit as the stream grabbed our keel and wanted us to go in directions that were not too safe. Once we passed the rather worryingly named Skullmartin and turned more to the SW, things started to calm down, with some messy wave patterns on the beam. The further we got from the land, the less shelter we had and the messier they got. The stabilisers won the battle though.

There were several clusters of fishing boats, some well clear of us:

Being a fish anywhere near that swarm of fishing boats was probably a guaranteed early demise. There was one particularly annoying inshore fishing boat that was dropping pots into the sea. He seemed to delight in changing course right in front of us to stress the crew who was at the helm. They probably enjoyed doing things that were basically unsafe and against all the collision regulations. We kind of hope that their pots were pretty empty.

The tides work in a collaborative way from Bangor down to Dublin. As you take the flood tide southwards, you meet a tide that has been running in the other direction pretty much as it changes. So, lots of tidal help which then drops off and picks up again in your favour. Up to 12 hours of help if timed nicely. It makes the trip way quicker - door to door our run took 14 hours after leaving at a less than optimal time. If we tried to do it against the tides, the Time Zero software calculated a 19 hour run and we think that is optimistic.

Here is the route for the 98 Nautical Mile trip:

As the wind dropped so did the sea state and the sun came out to join us too. It was a rather nice run down towards Dublin Bay until the wind shifted again to the SW (as forecast) and the clouds built just as we were approaching Lambay island, to the North of Howth:

At the entrance to Dublin Bay, you get to see Baily lighthouse:

only we were busy slowing down to allow a cargo ship to go into the bay ahead of us, through the shipping channel. We slowly kept going at around 1.200 rpm and 3 knots over the ground which felt pretty pedestrian as we just wanted to get there - tired folks on board by 5pm. We duly let the big guy pass us:

and headed across the bay towards Dun Laoghaire using the "approved" route. Only then the Dublin Vessel traffic Service called us on the radio to say that a dredger which had been pretty much stationary was about to head to the spoil ground to dump its load and they asked us to turn inland, following the cargo ship and then to turn astern of the dredger once it left the bay area. Being obedient folks we did so. Then we heard a call to the cargo ship to say their berth was not clear yet and there would be a 15 minute delay, they were asked to turn around and do a loop around the bay. Wonderful, sure enough we were called and asked to wait for them to turn and then go astern of them. Hence the odd track through the bay:

That added a fair bit of time to the trip, just when we didn't need it but such is life - the entrance to the Dublin docks is pretty manic in shipping terms. We finally entered Dun Laoghaire harbour, avoiding the yachts and dinghies that were racing and onto a pre-arranged berth. It was good to turn off the engine and electronics and contemplate dinner, after check-in at the office of course.

All in all not a bad run considering the weather conditions, the captain had to hose off plenty of salt spray but it really wasn't unpleasant at all. Despite Brexit having happened since our last visit here, we were still warmly welcomed and several local folks wanted to chat about the boat and where we'd been.  Nordhavns are still far from common and elicit lots of interest from yottie types.

Maintenance News:

The starboard navigation light refused to fire up which is just what we wanted at 3:45 am when we were getting ready to head off. The replacement bulb that lives in a handy drawer was fitted and it still did not work. This was very bad news. We discovered that the new spare bulb already had a broken filament, not what you expect or want. Especially as they are expensive little beasts being the higher powered versions. Luckily we keep 4 spares on board so we have a nice green light again.

Campbeltown to Bangor, then a most enjoyable time

Going south there were compromises, as always. If we left at the optimum time for the fastest passage, we would run into some very strong SE or SW winds before we arrived. Leaving earlier meant less tidal help and some initial sideways shove but a gentler sea state for the last 90 minutes or so. We opted for a slightly higher fuel burn and more comfort, naturally.

As we left Campbeltown, there was not much of a breeze going on:

4,9 knots pulled up barely a ripple across the bay. One local inshore fishing boat was being annoying and forcing us to take the long way around him but apart from that, most gentle. As we headed out and passed Devaar island, so the minehunter that we'd seen alongside the NATO fuelling quay was heading back into the bay area, burning off some of the fuel they had bunkered:

When we passed Sanda, the little island just SE of the Mull of Kintyre we allowed the tide to shove us to the west, knowing that when it turned we would get a gentler shove to the east but one that would last longer. Picking a compass course to steer that ought to negate these effects by the time we arrived was part science part guesswork, despite having the help of the Time Zero software. It didn't work out too badly in the end. As we plodded south, so the wind picked up as per the forecast:

and stayed coming from the SE, building bigger and bigger waves. We threw quite a bit of spray around but the ride was not too uncomfortable, with the waves on the port bow and the stabilisers countering any roll. A fair bit of pitching of course, the biggest waves were around 2 metres high, averaging less of course, until we got into the shelter of Belfast Lough.

From the track, you can see how the closer we got to Bangor, the better we are sheltered from SE winds:

During the run, we had some showers and some very thick areas of drizzle, the radar was busy once more. Approaching Bangor, things brightened up until we saw the obligatory cruise liner anchored off the harbour with tenders scuttling back and forth, dragging the passengers back on board for dinner:

We were happy to head into the harbour, secure the lines and kill the engine then enjoy dinner. An OK trip really, around 7.5 hours and no real dramas. We did, amazingly, see one small yacht that was heading around the Mull of Kintyre singlehanded which was on a collision course with us so we had to slow down. The only pleasure craft we saw during the whole run and it had to be on a collision course. The odds of that are pretty remote really.

After a good night's sleep, we got real and removed the bimini cover as some fruity winds were forecast (F8 gales) and we kind of like it the shape it is at the moment. Then a rather nice social time unfolded with an invite to dinner out, coffee and excellent scones with friends (the scones are SO good here) etc etc.  The bikes came out for a trip along the Lough towards Belfast too but a stop for coffee and scones at the Crawfordsburn Country park was spoiled by a thousand wasps joining in. Yes, it must be autumn now. 

The cruise ship thing was ultra-busy in Bangor. Some huge ugly things anchored off and the mad situation here (the boatyard and hoist facility is not run by the marina manager who is also the harbourmaster) means BJ Marine get paid a shed load of money to close the boatyard for a day so the cruise liner passengers can come ashore via it. Wild. Then the Hebridean Princess arrived, way prettier and smaller - they just need the fuel berth in the marina to close for the day:

It was sad to see so many closed up shops in the centre of Bangor. Worse than a couple of years ago. The "regeneration" of the city by the council seems to involve digging up a perfectly good carpark and promenade to put in an events space. How the folks attending the "events" are going to park is a mystery. As for the scene of devastation opposite this "exciting new development", composed of closed shops and a derelict shopping centre where £14 million might have been better spent.... Keep paying the taxes.

Maintenance News:

The big Lugger (John Deere) ran nicely, nothing to report there. We tinkered with the big magnetron scanner radar and sure enough, once the range dropped to under 6 Nautical miles, the targets became indistinct and needed almost full gain. Above that, it works just as it always has. Annoying, probably a trip to the Furuno repair shop lies in the future, it seems like the power being transmitted at lower ranges is insufficient suddenly. Our backup digital radar works just fine on all ranges.

Keith, a serious local lekky man, had obtained a new remote control (wireless unit) for our crane to replace the one that went pop in a big way last year. That will be a fun job back in Wales, getting the right connectors, setting it up etc. A job for a nice dry day.  

One bit of tinkering was completed - the hydraulic oil in the steering system reservoir was topped up a bit and the system re-pressurised. The reservoir is a real pain. The "low and high" marks on the case of it don't coincide with the positioning of the little windows through which you can see the fluid. Rather stupid really Mr Hynautic, so it is easy to overfill. We don't lose much oil though, a little mist on the steering ram when operating so not too much was added. Perhaps 3cc over two years! Not going to break the bank.

Tarbert to Campbeltown

After a couple of windy days, the sun came out and we felt it was time to begin the slow trek south for the winter. We said our farewells to Robert and Deborah, tidied up the boat after a few days of being like a holiday flat and headed out to begin the slow trip south. The weather was most odd / mixed. These three images were taken all at the same time. First of all The Kintyre Peninsular as admired by Patrick and Kylie:

then the view down Kilbrannan sound:

and then the island of Arran:

You can see how the weather looks rather different as you scan across. We had an uneventful run back to Campbeltown, where we planned to wait for suitable weather to head to Northern Ireland as the next stopping off spot. The ever helpful Callum had put some cones out to keep a spot in Campbeltown for us and as we berthed, the wind picked up to deliver 33 knot gusts that wanted to hold us off the pontoon. The thrusters helped us berth, rarely needed but on this occasion.....

The main engine hour meter was as close to celebrating a Nordhavn 47 as possible:

Before you worry about the number of hours, that is just saying I am run in and ready for more. The engine is a big old John Deere 6068 that has been babied since 2009 with regular oil changes, coolant changes, valve gear adjustments and Stanadyne additive in the fuel etc. It is very very unstressed with a low output (166 HP) for the 6.8 litre displacement and should run happily for many many more hours. There, we have tempted fate.

We had a wander around the local museum that was most interesting. Luckily the chair of the trustees was around and he explained a lot about the building, collection and local economy. We learned a few things about daily life there, how the fishing and then Whisky trade made many folks wealthy and also the current decline in the town.  There were a few unexpected bits about the troubles in Northern Ireland too:

We clearly recall the helicopter crash there during that time which killed many intelligence staff. See Wikipedia link for more information on that and the initial attempt to blame the pilots by the RAF establishment.