Granuaile we're on our way!

It was flat calm this morning and hot. No, I wasn’t complaining!
I had woken early deciding to leave Brian sleeping and tiptoed around as I got ready to leave but just as I left the mooring he stuck his head up to see if he was needed.
He wasn't but was soon on deck anyway as we left the harbour.

The wind never appeared as we motored around the east side of Inishbofin and then north in a flat calm.
We left Inishturk to port. I'd have liked to have stopped but the days were moving on and I needed to get Brian to Sligo town by the 24th.
As we headed for Clare Island the scenery was becoming more spectacular the future north we went.

We arrived at Clare Island at 12.20 and picked up what looked like a brand new visitor mooring buoy.
We went ashore, visiting Granuaile’s castle before continuing on along the south side of the island as far as the abbey where she is reputed to be buried. Unfortunally it was locked so we could only look in the windows.
It was lovely to be in shorts and t-shirt but later while we had a late lunch / early dinner at the hotel it began to get cold as the breeze came up and the sun went down. So much for showing my legs to the sun!

While we were having dinner we had a front seat view of the Life boat and Coast Guard helicopter arriving out at the island for a medical emergency.

Later when we went back to the boat. I had to have a quick shower to warm up and I discovered that one of the rubber end caps on the heat exchanger on the engine had split.

Disaster! Would we be able to carry on?
We were miles from civilisation as far as spare parts were concerned. Would I need a mechanic?
Right, calm down I said to myself and get out the engine manual.
After reading the manual I had a good hand on what needed to be done and was happy I could do it myself.
I used some self-amalgamating tape as a bandage and it slowed the leak to a drip.
Then Brian reminded that I had a roll of heavy duty self-amalgamating tape onboard and even better he knew where it was.
Crew like that………………………..priceless.

I later used that when we got to our next anchorage which stopped the leak, the rest could wait till Sligo.
Maeve was going to order the spare parts and bring them to Sligo, if she was able to make it to Sligo and if they arrived in time.
A lot of ifs but at least the repair was holding and I’d be able to flush the system properly when I got to Sligo.

While I had been playing with the engine, Brian returned to the island to use the laundry and was delayed in getting back as the dryers were taking their own bloody time.
Unfortunally there was no phone signal ashore so I got a bit anxious but he later appeared out of the dark. All was well.Lue lisää