TUESDAY 29^TH JULY, 2008. Happy Birthday Emily.

Sal Darago has made good time coming down from the Isle of Man on engine mostly against a very polite, easy, head wind. We left Port St Mary on Friday afternoon and anchored for four hours north of Lambay Island, near Howth. The seagull colonies were up early all shouting “mine” in unison. At 0810 we left Lambay to take the last of the tide to an anchorage south of Dublin called Dalkey Island. We were to sleep through the very warm afternoon. This time we realised the world and his wife and their children come from Dublin to Dalkey Island on warm July afternoons.

At 1700 we upped the anchor and set off south again with the tide. Just before nightfall we approached Mizen Head (No, not that Mizen Hd, the one just north of Arklow{€33 per night}). The wind was SE and the “anchorage” was exposed so we carried on to Arklow, sneaking into the old fishing harbour.

There was a young lady from BUTE

Whom we found was exceptionally cute,

Our ropes she did take

And fast did us make

That wonderful lady from Bute.

Kathy and I crashed out but the alarms rang at 0550. At 0600 we left Arklow; no young lady to help in the morning. There were beautiful blue skies interspersed with dense fog patches so the radar was on and off all day. As we were going to Kilmore Quay, Kathy and I decided to be decadent and have a shower each. The tanks quickly emptied. As we approached St Patrick’s Bridge, Kathy said she did not mind going on to Dunmore East about another three hours. Arriving at Dunmore East at 1824, a man on “Peionie” pointed out a mooring we could use overnight. After another delicious meal, Kathy and I went ashore and bought a very few supplies from Londis, open at 2145.

After a delectable lie in until 0630 and a leisurely breakfast, we set off with a strong wind behind us. Once away from Hook Head, the wind eased, the genoa had to be furled and the main held centrally to stop Sal Darago slopping about, while the Vetus pushed us along at 5 knots. This time we continued past our intended destination of Youghal (Yawl), because Dublin, Rosslaire, Minehead and Cork Coastguard Radio kept forewarning of strengthening SE/SW winds and heavy rain TOMORROW. The pilot book said that there were no customs in Kinsale and thus we decided to head for the Solent of Ireland – Crosshaven, Cork. We passed all the expensive boats in the marinas, including the Royal Cork Yacht Club (did Eire have Monarchs?) and wound our way to Drake’s Pool up the wooded Owenboy River, where we spent a delightfully quiet night on the only yellow mooring on the river.

Today it has poured all day – west coast of Scotland style- and Kathy and I have been snug in Sal Darago except when we ventured out for water from a nearby tap. Moral – never have a shower on board unless attached to a tap already.

Into the last week

Kathy has now finished working for nine months and has at last put some clothes on board. At one point I thought she might be voyaging as a naturalist, but no such luck ;-) Sadly neither of the cars has sold and we now have to quickly work out how to insure them as goods rather than cars - they used to do fire and theft, but that's a while ago. Just as well we hadn't sold the Focus, because it was full to the brim on Saturday with K's clothes, diesel fuel oil, yet more water and two huge bags of tins. It may have been lighter to go for the dried, ready meals option, but I have not seen them in the local supermarket. Quite a few of the "ARC" reports mention them as being varied and tasty - unless you know differently.



And so to the problem. Yes you guessed it - me. On Monday last week I had to go to the dentist, because of an infected tooth. To say that it was sore would be to say Mt Everest was a hill. After he had drilled out the infected filling, screwed out the nerves and covered the whole thing in some sort of DDT disinfectant, he let me go. I was really pleased that he hadn't removed the tooth until the anaesthetic had worn off. I was poorly, very poorly. This Monday, I have to return to the nice, kind dentist to have "root canal" work on the tooth. Apparently this is completely painless if you are dead.



Our intended leaving date was Wed/Thurs 23/24, but if I suffer as I did last week, then we shall not be leaving until later. Yes I know I am a geriatric weakling, but believe me - of all the ailments I have suffered - an infected tooth is the one that I can cope with the least even in the cradle of my own comfortable home. To have a similar ailment in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, does not bear thinking about.



Kathy is ready; Sal Darago is ready; only I am dragging my heels and hoping that the dentist leaves me in one piece as he waves me farewell. Oh - that and the fact there has been a gale warning out in the Irish Sea, so we would have been waiting anyway. Who knows, the next blog, we might be in Ireland.