Blow wind blow

I woke up early, checked the forecast and went back to sleep.
It was after 10.00 before I woke up again.
All was fairly calm as we had breakfast and caught up with some chores.

We were wondering about going ashore but that thought was soon put to bed as the wind started to increase at noon.
By 13.00 it was clear that we weren't going to be getting off the boat today.
At 15.00 I was leaving out more chain and we had dragged a little. Luckily we had plenty of room.
In the space of 3 hours the wind had gone from a Force 3 to a 7!

We have a small generator which we used for the first time in Clifden but we needed it again today as we wouldn't be running the engine until we were leaving Black Sod.
We left it on until the batteries were fully charged again. Would love to have solar panels but need an arch to make it worth our while.

Brian spent the afternoon reading in the cockpit while I did some chartwork and passage planning down below.
It was quite warm under the spray hood but as soon as we stuck our heads outside it, we were nearly blown away and cooled down rapidly.

Later as I was inspecting under the aft berth I discovered about five litres of water around the rudder stock.
Having checked to see if it was fresh or salt, I found it was the latter which meant that the rudder seals were leaking.
The Moody Owners Assoc. has a great technical forum which is a great help and I discovered we didn't need to put out a mayday.
Hopefully it won't get worse but shows that a boat needs constant minding.

Eureka swung around on her anchor all day while we just chilled out and discussed how we were going to get Brian to Sligo.
He didn't mind delaying a day but I had told Brenda that I'd have there on time and on time he'd be.

Brian made a mismash for dinner consisting of mashed spuds, sausages, carrots and peas which was lovely. As they say, hunger is a great sauce.

We are thinking of doing an overnight to Killala Bay tomorrow as the forecast is for the winds to drop later tomorrow. If we are successful then we'll be in Sligo the day before Brenda arrives to take Brian home.Meer informatie