Wicklow to Youghal (19th - 20th July)

This proved to be a tough couple of days sail. The first 12 hours were fine but after midnight when I handed over night watch to Rob things turned perky. A lightning storm, suicidal fisherman, fluky winds and a strong tide against us helped keep Rob and Tom pretty busy. It was an exciting 'first watch' on the good ship for Tom who was able to enjoy a smorsbord of exciting situations over just a few hours; we don't plan these things they just happen naturally on the good ship! The next day the sea continued to be rough and again the wind was persistently on the nose. The good ship enjoyed being largely under water so it was wet and slow with a pretty violent motion in the short, steep seas. As the day moved on it became increasingly obvious we would not make it to Cork without another foul tide and so as we battled to round Knockadoon Head we decided to bear off and sneak into Yougal Harbour for a break and to give our stomachs a rest. As ever the faithful fickle finger of fate served us well. We were welcomed by a guy in a RIB supervising dinghy sailors, he proudly announced 8 new visitor moorings. We grabbed one of them and were soon comfortably laying-to in the setting sun. Not quite Cork where we were trying to get to but close and only a hop, skip and a jump the following day.

Laying off one of Wicklows excellent visitor mooring buoys