Dingle to Kilronan nonstop

Alarms were set for 04.10 with a departure at 05.00 but once Jim saw we were up and nearly ready they slipped their lines early at 04.45 and ‘Eureka’ followed the stern light of ‘Second Chance’ out of the harbour in the dark, five minutes later.
For an auld fellow he doesn’t hang around and puts us young fellows to shame.

Jim hoisted his main shortly after leaving Dingle harbour but due to the wind direction we waited until Slea Head before putting up our sails.
We sailed past Trá Bán on the Great Blasket before heading north through the sound, clearing it at 07.30.
Originally I had hoped to anchor and go ashore but conditions weren’t suitable. One of these days………

Except for the ‘Round Ireland’ in ’96, I had never sailed north of Fenit so everything from now on was going to be new for me.

The morning started bright but chilly but as the day went on it heated up nicely.
The wind eased and went around to the south so we spent the morning motoring with just the main up.
Every so often one boat or the other would unfurl its genoa to see if we could sail but without success.
At 15.30 we noticed Jim had his genny out again and it seemed to be pulling nicely so we did the same and were rewarded with a good sail until we were about to enter Gregory Sound between Inishmore and Inishmaan four and a half hours later.
We dropped sails and were joined by a large pod of dolphins and as we motored through the sound we also saw a Minke Whale close by.
‘Second Chance’ didn’t see it so it’s one all, whale wise for the trip so far.

Kilronan was fairly shallow. I wanted to tie up and leave the visitor moorings until tomorrow. Even better there was another yacht already tied up at the end of the pier so we didn't have to worry about shore lines from Eureka in the calm sheltered conditions.
We rafted up outside the yacht at 21.00 and ‘Second Chance’ rafted to us and they put lines ashore to keep both of us from wandering.
We had a celebratory beer after a long day where we had only seen two other yachts.

We didn’t have a second drink as we were too tired. We had put our dinner on the stove as we were approaching the harbour so we went down below, ate and all headed to bed soon after, very pleased with ourselves having completed the longest leg (84 miles / 16 hrs.) on our round Ireland.Read more