TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

0323 Sunday May 23rd

Well I’m off, dropped my mooring in St Marys Harbour at 0323 on a clear night with a gentle ENE 2-3 as forecast. Had to cut up through Tresco channel on a falling tide to avoid going the usual longer routes to the East or the NW. I motorsailed up Tresco channel and past the yachts on the visitors moorings and out through New Grimsby sound until safely clear of ‘Kettle Rocks’. I would not recommend anyone who is not familiar with the drying areas of Tresco channel to do this in the dark, although straight forward enough if done at high water.

0416 Clear of any hazards off the back of Tresco, engine off and under full sail, 127.2 miles to the entrance of Cork Harbour bearing 332 degrees, 4.8 knots over the ground. A great night for sailing a with lots of stars out and a nice breeze, slight sea and swell. Already starting to look lighter to the East and the sun will soon be up. 0600 a beautiful sunrise, 5 knots SOG and 119 miles to go.

Only the second time I have made such a long passage across open water single-handed and the usual anxiety waiting to get going has long gone now that I am finally underway. 0715 Wind now freshened to ENE 4 and I struggled to get the first reef put in. The eye on the new mainsail is slightly too large for the reefing horn and jamming against mast when I try to hook it on. A new sail being quite stiff also didnt help. Need to bend the reefing horns out a bit sometime. Can always lash the reefing eyes down in the short term if it causes any more trouble. Moderate sea and swell, lovely sailing and getting 7.8 knots surfing down a few of the waves. Had to take the reef out again half an hour later, typical wind now steady ENE 3. Lovely sailng with blue sky.

A text book sail and managed to achieve  36 miles in the first 6 hours. Off to a flyer but I will have to wait and see if the wind holds as it is forecast to die away slowly by mid day and remain light over night. Have plenty of fuel on board if necessary to motorsail and the trusty 8 HP Yamaha 4 stroke outboard mounted in a well pushes her along very well at 1/3 to 1/2 throttle.

1536 Wind has dropped away and only making 3 knots, so on with engine. Making 5 knots again with 73.5 miles to go. Blue sky with the odd cloud and very hot, managed to get my lilly white legs quite sunburnt in last few hours. First outing for them this summer!

Steady 5 knots maintained and sea state almost flat. Treated to a lovely sunset but the wind has dropped right away. A long night of motor sailing ahead. Using about 1.5 litres of petrol an hour should be able to motor sail the whole lot and still have 15 litres to spare. Good job I carry lots of spare fuel in anticipation of this situation. Averaging 4.7 knots.

Since dark visibility to the north has reduced greatly and it feels like I am close to the edge of a fog bank. 0535hrs A lovely sunrise coming 11.6 miles to Cork entrance. A long damp and cool night motor sailing listening to the noise of the engine and ticking off the miles.

0830 Lovely clear sunny morning in Cork Harbour, ropes and fenders set ready. Turning into Owenboy River and heading up towards Crosshaven and the marinas. Picking my way through the local yacht moorings and decide to ask some people aboard a large grey yacht which marina can supply petrol. The couple onboard turn out to be friends of mine who i met in Scilly 5 years ago when they had a small catamaran. I raft up alongside them and go aboard for a cup of coffee while they check the almanac for marinas that sell petrol. A hour passes and I need to get moving to the Marina and get some sleep. They are waiting for the tide to go further up the river to ‘Drakes Pool’ so they will probably still be there in a few days when I intend to go to ‘Drakes Pool’ for a night before setting off to move up the Irish coast.

0930hrs Arrive Royal Cork Yacht Club and find an alongside berth. Its been 28hrs since departing and tiredness is getting a grip on me as I head up to the Marina office to pay. Now I have stopped and there are no more targets to achieve the body is shutting down. reasonable charges and full facilites here including free wifi and shore power. Friendly staff and pleasant atmosphere. Time to sleep. All in all a very good crossing and the forecast was accurate. I knew I would have to motorsail some of it but at least it gave me nice flat seas and steady progress in the right direction. Just what I needed for a first crossing to Ireland.

Had two nights at Royal Cork Marina to catch up on sleep and get fully rested. Lovely weather and time to get to know the area. Its a pleasent twenty minute flat walk along the front to Crosshaven where there is a supermarket, a fish and chip shop and a couple of pubs. Apart from the boatyards thats your lot! I was expecting somewhere much bigger with all the large marinas here. It was a nice stay and I made full use of the facilities at the marina. I did a few minor jobs on the boat and sealed a weeping cockpit drain. Will be moving up the river to spend a night at the famous ’Drake’s Pool’ before setting off up the coast probably on thursday. I intend to keep costs down by keeping away from marinas but I would highly recommend a stay at the Royal Cork Marina.