Explore Sailing Voyages in Ireland 🇮🇪

Overcast, wind N, 12knts. Low tide with 1m waves at 3s so unsettled chop. We set the small jib and reefed mainsail which turned out to be a good choice. We beat northward for an hour through 1m waves, occasionally 2m smell from the west. We were the only sailboat out on Donegal bay. No dolphins or whales today. We tacked, fell off and did a broad reach back to the mooring. Anticipated difficulty picking up the mooring so had the outboard idling in neutral. While approaching on a reach, the wind shifted and headed us so I put the motor in forward. I bogged and died. With the breeze blowing us back I managed to restart and it died again. I adjusted the choke, restarted with a bit of throttle and managed to power back up to the mooring. Sara was great grabbing the float on the first pass. Need to sort out the motor before the next trip. I believe its fuel delivery problem as there was no back pressure in the primer bulb.

Low springs, 0.4m at the pontoon and tight squeeze getting the dingy out. Wind N at 12knots, 1m chop at the mooring with the fordeck pitching making setup difficult. We trying sailing off on a beam reach to the east but the waves and wind said "no", so the fell off to port and jibed the sailed east through the moorings to open water. The jib and reefed main were a good choice and we worked to windward, tacking NE and NW against the northerly and in 1m chop with the occasional 1.5m wave. A good day sailing, in breezy wavey conditions and giving us a good core workout. We saw a small pod of dolphins leaping over the waves on our last leg toward the moorings.