FORD CORK WEEK 2000 (Page 2!)

1220hrs Slipped lines at Fenit Marina. Contacted "Shannon Coast Guard radio" with our new TR … destination Cape Clear. Now all well rested and fed, the boat refueled, we were ready to retrace our steps and depart Fenit Marina. Leaving Fenit was a lot easier than entering the night before … we could now see where we were going. 1300hrs Position N52*17.54' W09*54.2' 5.5kts 340*. Wind direction North/west 20kts F5. We're heading straight into wind and swell for a while to clear Tralee Bay. To quote Barry; "Andrew getting hammered". Must ask Barry what he meant, as I can't remember. As we were hoisting the main sail the shackle on the halyard came undone, but we sorted it out on the run and got the main up. 1400hrs Position N52*20.9' W10*01' 6kts. 3 meter swell. Altered course to 260* as we're now clear of Tralee Bay and heading further along the Kerry coast. 1440 hrs Fishing net sighted dead ahead at close range. Quickly altered course to find the end and go around. All is well again. 1510hrs Position N52*18.9' W10*09.5' 6kts 250*. 1600hrs Position N52*19.4' W10*16.7' 6.5kts 290* then 240* 1655hrs Position N52*16.44' W10*22.05' Altered course again due to more nets. Back on course a few minutes later. 1700hrs Position N52*15.64' W10*23.145' 6kts 220*. Started "Helm Duty" roster, Ronan on for next hour. Seven miles to Sybil Point (Dingle Peninsula). 1710hrs Altered course, drastically, again for nets. 1725hrs 1st fuel can, today, ran dry. We've had to motor sail, from Fenit, because of head wind and swell. But now we're close enough to Sybil Point to sail on with out motor as we will be bearing away from the wind to go through the Blaskets. Hoisted No.2 Genoa and time for a Soup break. 1810hrs Position N52*13.64' W10*28.60' 5.5kts 190*. Andrew on Helm Duty now. 1845hrs Position N52*09.327' W10*29.582' 7kts 190*. As if navigating the Blaskets was n't challenging enough, the path we chose was riddled with lobster pots. 1900hrs Position 52*08.00' W10*29.14' 7kts 195*. Very poor visibility. This is not helping our navigation through "The Blasket Sound". Navigation Lights on, radar reflector taken out of storage and hoisted, to make sure any other vessel will know we're out there, before they hit us. 1920hrs Clear of "The Blasket Sound", the wind is picking up, and the currents are causing "Overfalls" (bumpy seas). Now setting a new course, 190*, to cross Dingle Bay, cruising at 6.7kts. 2000hrs N51*58.8' W10*30' 6.9kts . We'll skip through a lot of the log entries for a while, as it' just more of the same for along while. We sailed on pass Valentia Island, making a course inside The Skelligs as darkness falls. Here we checked in with Valentia Coast guard Radio, to report … All is well. Just before we lost all daylight, we noticed that one of the "Reefing Lines" was fraying and we decided to repair it as we may have to use it through the night. After that was successfully done we changed our choice of sails for the night ( less sail up … less power … less chance of something going wrong). Thursday 13th July 2000 By 0100hrs we we're passing the light house on "The Bull", off "Dursey Head. On through the night we sailed, changing watch duty as we went. 0500hrs Starting to get bright … hoisted the Genny again, now that we're starting a new day. At 0530hrs we heard a "Gale Warning" on the VHF radio. It was neither "Imminent" nor for the part if coast we were on at that time but a more vigilant watch had to be kept on the weather from here in. Should it get bad we had to know where all our safe havens were, to make a quick blast for safety. Full daylight now and the seas are getting rougher. 0900hrs Position N51*24.868' W09*31.551' 7-8kts 060*. Rounding "Cape Clear", inside "The Fastnet". Clear skies ahead ... and sun blindingly reflecting on the water as it rises from the east ... dark clouds behind us. We now called Bantry Coast Guard Radio to inform them that we had made Cape clear safely and were going to push on for Kinsale, weather permitting. He asked us if we were aware there was a "Gale Warning in Operation". I told him I was and thank you. I told him we would try and push on a bit, but was keeping a close eye on the weather and had my escape routes planned. All is well.
On pass Baltimore and Toe Head, up to 1200hrs and then to quote Ronan; "The sun is making an effort to come out. Damian is making an effort to fry eggs." After brunch, the wind seemed to be slacking, took the reef out of the main (increased main sail, to increase power). Still not making much ground so started the motor, and on we went keeping up our average 6kts, pass "Galley Head" and on to "Seven Heads", when our motor seemed to have problems. We shut it down to check that the propeller was free. It was but then it wouldn't restart. We hoisted the No.2 Genny, which was already on deck, and got our speed up to 4.5 kts … not bad.
Realizing now that the Gale wasn't too far away, but we were n't quite at kinsale yet and we had lost a little speed, we thought Court Macsherry would be a better option. We tried the motor once more before changing plans. Yes … it started and seemed to be OK … speed up to 7kts … fingers crossed. 1610hrs Rounded the "Old Head of Kinsale", tried to check in with the Coast Guard but to no avail on VHF so tried the mobile phone, success, all is well. I spent the next hour trying to contact Kinsale Marina, on VHF and Mobile phone, to see if we could tie up there for the night. Eventually I got through and we were told along-side the jetty was full but there was space along-side other boats at the visitors jetty. 1725hrs We tied up at the marina in Kinsale, along side a Westport yacht, "Privateer". Just as we approached the jetty we were greeted by Dad (Jackie Ward), he had been watching us along the coast from "The Old Head". He commented that we had a lot of sail up, compared to the other boats in the bay, and we were traveling well. We said we were in a hurry to get ashore (the other boats were probably just out for a short day sail) as we had been out there long enough and didn't need to be caught by a gale at that stage. When we had all "Ship Shape", we all went ashore "Wined and Dined" at the Yacht Club … had a great evening a few well deserved pints and a good nights rest ( a full 8 hours, with difference to 1 hours between watches).

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