on top of Great Blasket
By some miracle, we have been blessed with incredible weather over the past week, the local radio announced today that temperatures were due to reach their highest ever recorded in Ireland. Wow!
It’s certainly been hot, but no wind for sailing. We have taken advantage of the settled conditions to explore places that would be impossible in strong winds or swell.
We passed through the narrow Dursey Sound, a shortcut between the mainland and Dursey Island, with an unseen submerged rock bang in the middle of the channel and a cable car twenty feet above the mast.
We visited Derrynane, a beautiful harbour whose daunting entrance leads between rocks 35 feet apart. The other end of the harbour led to long sandy beaches full of local families soaking up the sunshine, with people actually swimming (most in wetsuits admittedly).
The next day, another 30 miles to Valentia, again a narrow entrance leading to a huge natural harbour. We passed Puffin Island on route, which lived up to its name, the island and surrounding water was full of puffins, guillemots and shearwaters.
From Valentia, it was a short hop to the Blasket Islands, the most westerly point in Europe, and which had been recommended to us by several people. We approached Great Blasket on a misty day and were a little disappointed with what appeared to be a bleak, rugged and empty island. As we rounded the northeast tip, a gentle green slope bathed in sunshine came into view, containing several old stone ruins, with a curved sandy beach at the foot of the hill. We dropped anchor and were immediately greeted by ‘Fungi’, the local tame dolphin. We scrambled to the top of the ‘village’ (what’s left of it) and opened a cold can of beer in honour of our friend Ed, who has always had a yearning to come here “before his hand leaves the bucket of water”. Tis a wonderful spot!
Later, while trying to sail to nearby Dingle in the lightest of breezes, Dave managed to catch us a cod for our tea. We then received the phone call we had been waiting for. Our depth-sounder, which died in the Scilly Isles, and was sent for repair from there, has finally made its way to our friends’ house in Ireland.
Today, we took a slight detour to motor round the Skellig Islands. These are two sheer rocks about twelve miles off the coast. Little Skellig is grey and white(from the birds) and is home for up to 20,000 gannets. The noise was quite impressive!
Great Skellig is a contrasting grassy green and has the ruins of a 14th century monastery and Christian settlement on its 200 metre high summit. The stone steps leading up look quite daunting, but there is a more gentle path, winding around the outside for the day-tripper tourists. It was some feat in those days to built not just the monastery but also an old stone lighthouse perched on the jagged clifftops. We wondered why they chose such a remote place to settle and what they did for food?
We’re now slowly making our way back down the coast and will soon be on the lookout for favourable winds for the trip to France.
It’s certainly been hot, but no wind for sailing. We have taken advantage of the settled conditions to explore places that would be impossible in strong winds or swell.
We passed through the narrow Dursey Sound, a shortcut between the mainland and Dursey Island, with an unseen submerged rock bang in the middle of the channel and a cable car twenty feet above the mast.
We visited Derrynane, a beautiful harbour whose daunting entrance leads between rocks 35 feet apart. The other end of the harbour led to long sandy beaches full of local families soaking up the sunshine, with people actually swimming (most in wetsuits admittedly).
The next day, another 30 miles to Valentia, again a narrow entrance leading to a huge natural harbour. We passed Puffin Island on route, which lived up to its name, the island and surrounding water was full of puffins, guillemots and shearwaters.
From Valentia, it was a short hop to the Blasket Islands, the most westerly point in Europe, and which had been recommended to us by several people. We approached Great Blasket on a misty day and were a little disappointed with what appeared to be a bleak, rugged and empty island. As we rounded the northeast tip, a gentle green slope bathed in sunshine came into view, containing several old stone ruins, with a curved sandy beach at the foot of the hill. We dropped anchor and were immediately greeted by ‘Fungi’, the local tame dolphin. We scrambled to the top of the ‘village’ (what’s left of it) and opened a cold can of beer in honour of our friend Ed, who has always had a yearning to come here “before his hand leaves the bucket of water”. Tis a wonderful spot!
Later, while trying to sail to nearby Dingle in the lightest of breezes, Dave managed to catch us a cod for our tea. We then received the phone call we had been waiting for. Our depth-sounder, which died in the Scilly Isles, and was sent for repair from there, has finally made its way to our friends’ house in Ireland.
Today, we took a slight detour to motor round the Skellig Islands. These are two sheer rocks about twelve miles off the coast. Little Skellig is grey and white(from the birds) and is home for up to 20,000 gannets. The noise was quite impressive!
Great Skellig is a contrasting grassy green and has the ruins of a 14th century monastery and Christian settlement on its 200 metre high summit. The stone steps leading up look quite daunting, but there is a more gentle path, winding around the outside for the day-tripper tourists. It was some feat in those days to built not just the monastery but also an old stone lighthouse perched on the jagged clifftops. We wondered why they chose such a remote place to settle and what they did for food?
We’re now slowly making our way back down the coast and will soon be on the lookout for favourable winds for the trip to France.
posted by Katie at 9:55 AM
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