Finally the sun arrives

The next morning we sat in the cockpit having a leisurely breakfast as we listened to the wind beginning to ease. It was nice and bright and fairly warm and life was good.

The forecasts, Force 5-6 dropping to Force 4-5 with the coastal reports confirming that the wind was dropping so it looked like we were going to be on our way to Inishbofin about noon.
We got the sails ready for hoisting and prepared for sea like two excited youngsters on their first adventure.

We left the mooring at 11.53, hoisted a reefed main and headed out.
There was a big swell outside, bigger than any I’d seen since the gale off Brest while bringing ‘Eureka’ home and I didn’t like it one little bit.

The west coast is a different beast to what we're used to down south and has to be treated with respect.
Having the mainsail up as we left stopped us from rolling until we were able to change course NW and onto a reach when we unfurled about a third of the genny.

We made good time and went through High Island Sound, one of many of the same name on our coasts where we changed course NNE straight for Inishbofin.
The swell was now on our port quarter as we surfed along almost on a run.

We didn’t have a huge distance to run but the large swell made steering difficult as ‘Eureka’ twisted when we lost some of the wind in the bottom of the swell.
We dropped the main to help steady the boat and as it had been smothering the genny a bit and we continued under genoa and turned on the engine to give us a bit of drive when we slowed in the bottom of the waves and things became much more comfortable as well as giving a badly needed charge to the batteries.

The entrance to Inishbofin harbour looked very narrow as we approached and it was difficult to keep the leading marks in line in the swell that was breaking off the nearby rocks but we were soon inside and under the shelter of Cromwell’s Barracks, an impressive ruin to starboard.

It took three attempts before I was happy with the anchor.
The first try had our anchor getting caught on a mooring chain. By freakish luck the tip of our plough got caught in a link of the chain and we were able to pull it up just enough to get the boat hook on the chain and free the anchor.
Our second try brought up half the seabed and I had to chop away the weed to find the anchor before trying to reset again but eventually we were happy.

Satisfied at last we went ashore and did a good bit of exploring in the sun, discovered we had to climb the hill beside the harbour for a phone signal to report home and when all that was done, we settled back with a pint or two in the sun as we eat ashore.

Summer had arrived on the west coast. We had started in oilskins when we left Clifden and arrived in Inishbofin in shorts and t-shirts. We are looking forward to having a good luck around tomorrow as the sun is supposed to stay with us.Läs mer