Hiding from the weather . . .again

A swell came straight into the harbour on Clare Island during the early hours and woke me at 06.30.
I got up to check the mooring but everything was ok, I didn't know how Brian was sleeping through it. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to leave early.

Brian was awake and up when I was ready to slip the mooring and we headed out at 08.40 with the main already hoisted
Luckily there was a nice easterly breeze so I didn’t have run the engine for long. I didn't want to test our repair too much. It was dripping but not losing much water.

The forecast was for a N / NE Force 7 for the next two days so we decided head for Black Sod Bay before the winds arrived.
We probably would have got as far as Broad Haven if not further but Broad Haven looked open from the north and the next harbour, Killala, was totally open. I had heard that the Navy used Black Sod Bay to shelter from gales so I decided to do the same.
The sailing directions said that Elly Harbour in Black Sod was the best shelter for northerly winds so that's where we headed.

We had a nice reach at 5 to 6 knots until we reached the massive cliffs of Achill which blocked the wind until we got to the mouth of the bay and picked it up again.
Later as the wind died we motored north up the bay to Elly Harbour passing lovely beaches which makes this area so popular for holidays. We found a spot to anchor in the shallow sandy inlet and dug in well leaving out plenty of chain. We had the place to ourselves.

Rather than a harbour as we know it, it was just a large shallow sandy bay surrounded on three sides by low lying land.

We went ashore and began walking to find a shop and some petrol for the outboard then a Landover stopped beside us and offered us a lift to the nearest petrol station…….in the opposite direction and brought us back again.
For some reason, probably because we had nothing else to do we walked to the shop and back again. Jim would have been proud of us, a total of 12 kms.

We returned to Eureka which lying in the middle of the bay nice and calm as the sun started to go down.
Dinner over, we watched a dvd to pass the night away before going to bed.
It was hard to believe the weather is to change.Read more