Wight Mistress’s Round Britain Trip

Saturday 6 June, Howth Marina

On advice from an old friend of ours, who tells us he looks at the jet stream and his barometer and ignores the weather guessers, we decided to add those tools to our weather tool box. So from our estimation, this nasty stuff is going to continue bashing the Irish Sea until mid next week, after which some slightly gentler westerly winds might appear. The local sailing club folk gave us some advise on local tidal effects as well, so we hope to build all that into our navigation plan, while keeping a close eye on Inshore Waters, Shipping and Surface Pressure Charts as usual.

For now, today was a resting day. Lie in, late breakfast, bath and dhoby and a walk along the sea wall to watch the 1900s vintage Howth 17 ft One Design boats racing in the bay. While wandering through the marina we espied two Fisher 25s, both tan hulls. Shimna and Sunima. We went and introduced ourselves to the owner of Shimna; he was a bit surprised to see us….. lovely chat. Sadly Barry, the owner of Sunima was not onboard. Perhaps we might meet them while we are here. We did check on the FOA website and, happy to report that they are both members.
(post note…. Note: Both members emailed and contact was made.)

Looking at the Howth 17 One Design boats, to this sailor, the hulls look a bit like the Portsmouth Victory Class but they sport a gaff rig with a brightly coloured topsail. It was bright, sunny and a gentle breeze when they headed off around the bay. By the time they were returning, it was gusting winds and poor-ish visibility in pouring rain. We retired to ‘O’Connells’, a pub on the front, to savour Guiness and Beamish, while Barbara enjoyed an Irish cider followed by a Mojito (very Irish!) Met up with a local chap, Gary White, and spent a very pleasant afternoon, chatting with Gary and watching the hurling on TV (what a strange game!)
Early night.

Sunday 7 June, Howth

Quiet day onboard. Weather horrible. Just a day of rest really. Went online and booked the Guinness Store Experience in Dublin for tomorrow.

A chap with a camera ventured along the pontoon to have a look at Wight Mistress (as so many folk do.) Steve popped up to say hello and talk ‘cameras’, to find that the chap was Dutch, and was on a similar sailing trip to ourselves. So Roel and Christa (his wife) came aboard for en kleine coffi with us and a lovely chat, where Steve’s terrible Dutch was trialled just for fun. Fortunately their English was better than Steve’s Dutch. Roel and Christa headed off in their boat Schuymbloem (‘foamflower’)

Met David Hopkins on a Nautic 33 along the pontoon. Every time you meet someone here, you receive either a nice welcoming hello, or end up chatting for an hour. It is only a couple of hundred yards from Wight Mistress’s hammerhead berth to the office but that can often take over an hour. Wonderful.

We noticed two Fisher 25s, both with coffee coloured hulls) a ketch called ‘Shimna’ and a sloop rigged cutter, or ‘slutter’ called Sunima. A cursory glance at the Fisher Owners Association website revealed both owners as members, so after finding David Love, the member onboard Shimna (and a half hour chat) we contacted Barry O’Loughlin, the owner of Sunima and met up with him later in this visit. It is quite fun finding FOA members around the places we visit.

Monday 8 June, Howth

Caught the Dart train into Dublin and started our day there with a bus tour. We tend to do this on every city type visit, as it gives us a picture of the city’s layout, which is especially important as Steve has little or no natural sense of direction and he needs all the help he can get.

One of the pleasant aspects of the tour is that it showed sites, and re-connected memories of the one time we came here in 2017 while on a cruise on Arcadia. As ever, the park was beautiful and, with so many beautiful buildings and bridges along the River Liffey, the bus tour was a real treat.

We needed to get some logbook pages printed and on embarking the bus tour we noticed a ‘print centre’ (ah! The Law of Attraction at work!) So at the end of the tour, pages printed, we found a super little sandwich shop and enjoyed hot focaccia sandwiches, washed down with a delicious mocha.

Arrived at the Guinness thing at 1500, an hour early, and were able to go straight in.
If you do this activity, allow 2 hours to get all the way to the top to the ‘Gravity Bar’ where you receive your free pint each.

Another bit of advice worth taking is that if you take the horse and buggy ride back to Temple Bar, they will quote you 40 Euros. When you get there, you find it is 40 Euros per person for what is about a 10 minute ride. It was very pleasant but a trifle expensive, but it saved us a walk.

Ended up in Temple Bar area. Attempted to go in to the Temple Bar pub but were fought back by the shear amount of noise from the live music. It was so loud that it sounded off key. We wandered over to ‘The Quays’, where there was more music but it was at a much better volume – we were able to sit at the bar, in front of the musicians, and still chat with folk around us.

One of the lovely things about cruising like this is that you get to meet so many lovely people from all over the world. We met a Dutch girl with her Irish boyfriend; they live in Holland but had to come back here for him to renew his passport. Another couple from Nashville, Tennessee were visiting. He was an airline pilot and his wife had hopped on the flight for fun.

Half hour or so walk from Temple Bar area back to the station to head back to Howth.

Tuesday, 9 June, Howth

Still weary from the crossing and the wind still blowing quite hard, we decided to stay another day, so some shopping and generally rest up. This evening we popped into the sailing club to find Barry (F25 Sunima) and David (Nauticat ‘Mare’) and friends and we spent a very pleasant final evening in superb company. If you ever come to the Emeral Isle with the intention of visiting Dublin, we would very strongly recommend Howth Yacht Club. They own the marina and the service is excellent.En savoir plus