Introduction
Having been forced to leave Leonore in Ireland last year due to stormy weather, I was continuing with the theory that stormy weather is more prevalent later in the year, so decided to move the cruise from early July to Early June and see how that goes. This ruled David Hammond out, but luckily Dan Taylor was able to stand in and after a trial sail out to St Anns and back met with approval both ways and we were set for this year’s Leonore cruise starting on 2 June. Really we could have gone earlier as a big “blue hole” i.e. low wind patch, was predicted to appear and grow in size over the period, however other commitments dictated otherwise.
Crew: Dan Taylor, Alan Pritchard.
Sailing Log
2/3 June Pembroke Dock – Cork (Crosshaven) 124nm, 36 hrs Wind NNW F2 -4
I got up at 4 o’clock and picked Dan up then down at Hobbs Point, he saw Leonore in at the pontoon
and we loaded up and got off at 0515 as a beautiful dawn developed, though there wasn’t much wind yet. Thankfully the wind built, enabling us to sail reasonably down to St Ann’s by 7 and then just by The Smalls at 11, so we set the Course 270T for The Bulman, at the entrance of Kinsale, now 105nm to run. At the north-bound TSS we passed safely behind the BG Onyx, and had no further traffic in the south-bound lane. In the afternoon the wind died and we had to drift and motor a bit, but I was very impressed that Dan had the patience to do the best with sailing rather than motor too much. As dusk fell, a couple of swallows decided they would investigate a place to roost the night and visited our rigging regularly, then when it got really dark, one flew right into the cabin and perched on the edge of my technical notes file just above the bunk. The wind turned west and we took up port tack to the south of course.
Coming on midnight we were approaching the Met Eireann Buoy M5, around which there were a number of fishing boats, and we found it difficult to plot a safe route between them and the buoy, whose five flashes we couldn’t always make out until we were really close. As we pulled away so the density of fishing vessels diminished and we had clear sea come early hours. I turned in next to our feathered passenger and in the dawn woke to find it gone.. I thought it must have fallen into the shelf and feared it must have expired, but Dan informed me it had just flown straight out as soon as it was light! The rest of the morning was afflicted by the predicted “blue hole” with variable wind, both in strength and direction such that shortly after midday we chose to shorten course and head
for Cork Harbour, 15 nm off. So in late afternoon we tied up at Salve marina and had a well-earned Guinness session in the Oar pub..in fact we left it a bit too late to get a pub dinner and and had to be saved by the chef at Cronin’s bar who had technically finished but offered us a single choice - steak and chips –that did perfectly!
4 June Crosshaven – Kinsale 24nm 4 hrs Wind W-NW 4-7
Our neighbours at Salve turned out to be on an ex-Angle lifeboat from the fifties now based at Arklow, who were touring with several other boats. The wind was predicted to go quite high and so we more or less decided to limit ourselves to making Kinsale, as it was a long trip against the wind to the following port (Glandore). It did turn out quite minty for a beat, and we were grateful after 4 hrs to turn into relative calm after arriving at the Bulman. At the KYC pontoon there was just enough space for us between two boats but it would be difficult to get in there with our limited manoeuvrability however there was a very useful help on the pontoon and we nosed up directly to the centre of the gap, where he took both lines, Dan jumped ashore, and they pulled Leonore in sideways..perfect! Ashore we had a pub crawl and settled on dinner at Fishy Fishy as recommended some time ago by Maelstrom and good it was! Next day weather should be better.
5 June Kinsale – Glandore 33.5nm 9hrs Wind west going westnorthwest 4/5
Motoring out of Kinsale over breakfast, we set sails and rounded the Old Head of Kinsale just before
midday and were then set against the west wind, so had to tack into and out of Courtmacsherry bay and around Seven Heads, before falling into Clonakilty Bay, and climbing out again round Galley Head just to continue tacking in Glandore Bay, but eventually gaining the entrance to Glandore where we could sail north into the harbour, de-tackling the sails to motor past many dinghy racers, plus a good group of Dragons and onto a visitor buoy then a dinghy trip to the lovely village where there is a
great view down to the entrance. Dinner at the Glandore Inn.
6 June Glandore – Baltimore 22nm 5hrs Wind Northwest going west
More tacking today, once we had rounded the harbour and shore islands, we managed to make it on one tack to the entrance of Castletownsend using the northwest wind before the new west wind had us tacking outside the Stag Rocks and the Kedge rock and on Dan’s request (it was only just after lunch) into the
famous Baltimore harbour, where we picked up a visitor buoy. Beer at Bushe’s and dinner at the Algiers Inn.
7 June Baltimore – Fastnet Rock - Glengarriff (Bantry Bay) 50nm 11hrs Wind west moderate going northwest
Last night Dan said he was keen to go around the Fastnet Rock as it’s such an iconic magnet for yachtsmen. I wasn’t promising, as it might be a bit of a diversion from achieving a long trip, however on the day the wind came up west and so progress around Mizen head was ideally suited to a starboard tack out to sea and, well, the Fastnet Rock! So, out we went took a few show-off photos
and headed back inland to the Mizen where things didn’t work out so ideally and we had to add two
extra tacks to get safely round the head which was looking quite intimidating today. Having got around we were at last able to bear away and head north up the famously attractive Irish west coast, past Dunmanus Bay with a couple of shallows and races on show, and up to Sheep Head the entry to Bantry Bay. From here we tacked downwind to the far end, some 15 miles before making our way into the beautifully wooded Glengarriff Bay and taking the last mooring before inflating the dinghy and heading off to town for a well-deserved meal. Coming back was a bit interesting as we had let the dinghy dry out leaving a shallow seaweedy patch to wade through to get seaborne.
8 June Glengarriff – Lawrence’s Cove 15nm 3hrs Wind northwest
We had decided to limit today’s trip to allow some time for Dan to get some work done on the internet, so Lawrence’s Cove marina was chosen, and we could start fairly late. Bizarrely we had some questions to answer from home about racing, and amazingly we dealt with these no problem, from distant Bantry Bay before moving off!
Wind was light and flukey, but not frustrating as we had an easily achievable goal. Entrance to the marina was easily followed and we were ushered in to a berth that could allow us to turn around later on.
We nipped in to Rerrin, a village left behind since the navy left, and found some lunch.
Dan then had a good afternoon’s work while I did some maintenance, and later on we went to the old navy pub to finish off the evening.
9 June Lawrence’s Cove – Sneem (Kenmare River) 34 nm 8.5hrs Wind northwest 4-6
So the idea today was to use the northwest wind to tack west and north into the next bay up the coast, Kenmare River, preferably straight across to Derrynane a beautiful sandy cove surrounded by rocks. We set off in good time, passing close to a familiar shipwreck with its masts out of the water on the way to the massive fishing port of Castletownbere where we turned southwest down Piper Sound to regain the Atlantic coast. Here we made west along the last of the Cork coast as we entered Dursey Sound towards the end of its northbound stream. Here we passed under the regularly used aerial runway which carries a variety of passengers including cattle! Interesting, however our attention was soon concentrated on the increasing wind heading directly against us as we pounded under engine though the narrowest and most rocky part of the sound. I was very aware that if we strayed from dead into wind, the wind would turn us sideways and probably over some rocks in very quick time, but adrenalin kept us away from that danger until we emerged from the strength of the stream at the north end, now in County Kerry. However as we relaxed it became obvious that a long fetch had built up a difficult swell for our course to Derrynane, plus I couldn’t remember if it would be a safe anchorage in the northwest wind and so we decided to go for the known safety of Sneem although it lay 14 miles up the Kenmare
This was a long sail overshadowed by the need to reverse it tomorrow, however eventually the bay changed to be quite woody and giving a comforting feeling of safety from the wind out to sea. Taking a buoy and going ashore it was also a long walk into Sneem town, a tourist
place, on the ‘ring of Kerry’, quite full, but several places to eat. Whilst out we decided this should be our furthest point, as Dan had to make it back to Pembs to embark on the Altensa trip to Brest.
10 June Sneem – Cape Clear Island North Haven 48 nm 11.5hrs Wind north light
To get back to Dursey Sound for the last of the southbound current at least in the difficult northern section we had to get going at 6am and following that the wind was a bit light and not quite allowing anything but fully close hauled starboard tack, plus towards the end a bit of engine to make sure.
Through under the cable car we relaxed a bit and headed south for the Mizen, but going was very slow until later in the afternoon, when we crept around the Mizen and headed east initially to go south of Cape Clear Island, but as the wind failed again we decided to go for the North Haven and we called on VHF to see if there was room, but only got a reply from the coastguard asking if we were in trouble so we went in anyway and found a space, next to our old friends with the ex-Angle lifeboat.
This is a great place wild and picturesque as we found last year and still not charging for a stay. Being early season there was only the one pub open, but that was fine and we got a good walk in as well before dinner.
11 June Cape Clear – Courtmacsherry 37.5 nm 10hrs Wind light west
So now we’re in ‘get as far as we can’ mode, so we turned Leonore round by ropes helped by our neighbours and piloted our way out to Roaringwater Bay and headed over to a point clear of the Bullig rock before heading down to Gascanane Sound, where we sailed assisted by motor whilst Dan steered experiencing the tens of degrees differences this way and that between apparent heading and actual GPS direction on the path between rocks either side. Popping out into the Atlantic again we made reasonable progress Eastward in a reasonable westerly, through The Stags and past Castletownsend and Glandore and hoping for Kinsale, but we ran short and decided to pull in at Courtmacsherry just west of the Old Head.
Supposedly nothing much happens here.. only that ‘the tide comes in and the tide goes out again’ however Leonore did have an incident in the strong tide here back in 2005 and I’ve kept clear ever since. Anyway we plotted our way upriver trying to find the channel buoys hidden amongst the plethora of moored boats of all kinds, and found our way up to the pontoon area where we I found an open length. I headed in, but found too late that it was reserved for boarding and I dithered in the flowing stream so that the boat’s bow was taken quickly downstream and to avoid hitting the next boat down I gunned the engine and got Dan to run up front and jump off to secure us at the bow, which he did admirably but in so doing the stem t-boned the pontoon and rode up the edge alarmingly. Hopefully not too many people saw, and the boat upstream kindly offered us to raft alongside, so we pulled Leonore up alongside her stern first to be ready to set off without incident next day. Never again unless I have to, although I noted there are plenty of moorings in the stream. The only place open for food was the large Hotel at the southernmost location in town, but very adequate this evening.
12 June Courtmacsherry – Cork (Crosshaven) 30 nm 8hrs Wind light southwest
Drifting safely off we motored down into Courtmac bay, where the Shark research boat that was using the loading pontoon this morning was charging around trying to find sharks. There was little wind but we made it around the Old head of Kinsale in fair time, allowing us to go a bit further East,
so we aimed for the Sovereigns and Daunt Rock then made our way past anchored ships and in to Cork Harbour heading once again for Salve marina inner pontoon. After an interesting chat to a young lass who had inherited a fine small wooden boat just in front of us and was up for as much advice as we could give, we made off to the Oar pub where Guinness morphed pleasantly into dinner with that lovely feeling of a day off tomorrow as heavy wind was predicted.
13 June Day off
We took the luxurious opportunity to have a bought-out breakfast down in town and in the afternoon a shower followed by a revisit of the Oar pub for pre-dinner Guinnesses before making it up to the Ship pub renowned for seafood, and very good it was too.
14 June Crosshaven – Dunmore East 51 nm 12.5hrs Wind west 4/5 with moderate swell
Although the wind still hadn’t dropped enough out at sea for a crossing to home, it was a couple of notches below close to the coast, so we decided we may as well move on close to land and shorten the distance for the final trip. Early departure and both sails up in the harbour then outside setting course close to downwind, we had a lot of trouble in the swell choosing the best rig for comfortable and safe steering. In the end the best was achieved with main only, mostly at 5+ kt, and this took us along nicely all the way along the coast passing Ballycotton, Youghall, and Dungarvan, all possible staging posts, till the late afternoon brought on Dunmore East as the handy stopping point.
Taking a convenient space on the pontoon, we made over to the Sailing club which despite it being Friday was virtually empty. Good meal at Azzurro’s Italian up in the village.
15 June Day Off
Wind still strong out at sea and rain as well, with tomorrow looking better, so chance for showering and otherwise laying about and preparing for tomorrow’s trip home.
16 June Dunmore East – Pembroke Dock 86nm 17.5hrs Wind light north, going west. swell
We got up at 5 just after our neighbours, so had an easy getaway, got the sails up quickly and motored on to Hook Head as we weren’t feeing any wind yet but then took up a tailwind on to the Koningsbeg Rock buoy and things then improved and we made fair passage to the corner of the Southbound Smalls TSS by mid-afternoon. Shortly afterwards we had a visual target in Grassholm, 11 miles distant. Home! Past Grassholm..with noses held, and on to St Anns as light faded and Hobbs Point just into dark to unload before testing my new mooring buoy reflectors which blazed back at the torch.. perfect guide, back ashore at 2300.