seals galore
After the first week of tropical sunshine (at times anyway), the weather has now returned to a more typical Irish climate – heavy showers and strong westerly winds. We spent a couple of days in the ‘civilisation’ of Bantry (they have a cinema!!), then moved 5 miles north to the beautiful natural harbour of Glengarriff. Practically every rock and tiny ‘island’ in the harbour has got its own group of seals basking in the sun, hence a popular spot for the tourists.
As well as seals, the harbour was surprisingly full of jellyfish. Some tiny pinkish see-through ones and bigger brown ‘compass jellyfish’ with nasty-looking trailing tentacles.
Dave had managed to buy yet another tree in Bantry, so we spent most of the time planing up yet another new boom. This one has tighter growth rings than our last tree, (which is already showing signs of weakness) so this will hopefully be stronger. Also, the tree was felled in December, so is not as young as the last one, which was growing until the day Dave chose it in the forest!
We did find time to climb the nearby ‘Sugarloaf Mountain’ and sample the local wares in the form of pints of Beamish - the only thing on offer apart from woollen jumpers...
We also had a lucky (or not so lucky, depending on how you see it) incident. We had moved in to the pontoon to top up with water and on moving back out to re-anchor, found the anchor wouldn’t grip. Dave pulled up the chain to have another go, only to find the anchor was no longer attached. The ‘anchor link’ had broken in two. We attached our spare anchor and managed to get it to grip for the night.
In the morning, Dave tried trawling for the lost anchor with both a magnet and a grappling iron, but without success. He even got on his diving kit and braved the jellyfish to scan the bottom, but with very soft mud, there was no trace of any anchor.
So we are annoyed to have lost our main anchor but thankful that it happened when it did. If the anchor link had failed while we were ashore, with strong winds blowing we could have lost the boat itself and not just the anchor. Makes you think…
Anyway, we’ve now moved on, back up Bantry Bay to a fishing harbour called Castletownbere, where we’re awaiting better weather to hopefully explore a bit further north.
As well as seals, the harbour was surprisingly full of jellyfish. Some tiny pinkish see-through ones and bigger brown ‘compass jellyfish’ with nasty-looking trailing tentacles.
Dave had managed to buy yet another tree in Bantry, so we spent most of the time planing up yet another new boom. This one has tighter growth rings than our last tree, (which is already showing signs of weakness) so this will hopefully be stronger. Also, the tree was felled in December, so is not as young as the last one, which was growing until the day Dave chose it in the forest!
We did find time to climb the nearby ‘Sugarloaf Mountain’ and sample the local wares in the form of pints of Beamish - the only thing on offer apart from woollen jumpers...
We also had a lucky (or not so lucky, depending on how you see it) incident. We had moved in to the pontoon to top up with water and on moving back out to re-anchor, found the anchor wouldn’t grip. Dave pulled up the chain to have another go, only to find the anchor was no longer attached. The ‘anchor link’ had broken in two. We attached our spare anchor and managed to get it to grip for the night.
In the morning, Dave tried trawling for the lost anchor with both a magnet and a grappling iron, but without success. He even got on his diving kit and braved the jellyfish to scan the bottom, but with very soft mud, there was no trace of any anchor.
So we are annoyed to have lost our main anchor but thankful that it happened when it did. If the anchor link had failed while we were ashore, with strong winds blowing we could have lost the boat itself and not just the anchor. Makes you think…
Anyway, we’ve now moved on, back up Bantry Bay to a fishing harbour called Castletownbere, where we’re awaiting better weather to hopefully explore a bit further north.
posted by Katie at 12:57 PM
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