Atlantic Adventure News

Follow the attached link to see a few pictures from the trip:

10/8/2002

Spent 2 days in Crosshaven waiting for an engineer to check over a slight diesel leak on the engine. We managed to reduce the flow to an occasional trickle and are happy to live with this rather than undergo major repairs.

On Friday we went out to test the engine and the sailing was so good we set off for Kinsale. We had a marvelous sail along the coast and tacked all the way into Kinsale right up to the marina - we even received a cheer from some fellow sailors.

7/8/2002

Safe arrival in Crosshaven Marina,Cork, 0300 Hrs Wednesday, 180 miles and 34 hours from Howth, Dublin. Lots of motoring, but fine weather, lots of early morning fog. Lunch of pan seared monkfish with Mediterranean herbs, butter and mustard grain sauce, flambéed in Bowmore malt whisky (truly), on a bed of basmati rice, all helped down with a bottle of Gewurtzraminer. Enjoyed a great sail tacking through the night in a solid force 4, finally picking the lights into Cork Harbour, the autopilot great for single hand sailing, just zap it on for a couple of minutes for sail adjustments, navigating etc.

Crosshaven interesting and welcoming, and music tonight at the Sailors Return. Day of rest today after 4am bed following anchor dram.. 

6/8/2002

We sailed to Howth (Dublin) on Sunday, arriving just in time for the essential Guinness. We motored most of the way, but were rewarded with sunshine and an incredible experience with a pilot whale. It just appeared inches from the side of the boat and was over 20 feet long. It then played with us for 20 minutes.

Last night we had a very starry sail down from Dublin and were treated to some really good fireworks displays - they could have been for August Bank Holiday rather than us, but we had a great view. We are now sailing along the south coast towards Cork. Once again we have little wind, but the weather is very pleasant Mr Auto pilot is a big hit, though he tends to get  a bit weary at times -too much rum perhaps.

The e-mail address for the boat is (pinball.wizard@zap-email.com), only to be used if a friend/relation urgently needs to contact someone on the boat.

4/8/2002

First full day of the PW adventure. After a windless overnight motor down to the Irish sea, we are now sailing in bright sunshine, just past Belfast, with the spinnaker up. We are having a real problem deciding whether to have white or red sparkling wine with our lunch. It's tough but someone has to do it.

2/8/2002