Matt Haste

In the evening in zgrey stoned we had some young seals swim/sleep near us in the marina, just 4m away. The wind turned up for leg 5's last sail with gusts up to 26 knots. So the crew got to get a feel for Nomad on the heal. A trip into Dublin in the evening with a great Irish pub meal and beers. We have a few days rest in Dublin before leg 6.

A damp 8 am start to leave Arklow with no wind again but a good tide. The strong tide did have the negative of submerging the fishing pot floats (see picture). So a very careful watch needed to be kept to avoid disaster. We had to avoid a gun range and confirm our plans to a patroling destroyer. Greystones was having a regatta but luckily had a nice berth for us. The tide driven fast passage gave us plenty of time for a walk, dinner on board and a trip to the pub.

We set off at 6am to make the best of the tide and sail in daylight as they have a lots of fishing pots with long lines to catch our prop. The tides run fast up the east coast of Ireland so we we had a very fast passage hitting up to 10.5 knots but unfortunately nearly all under engine. We rafted up in Arklow in time for our first pint of Guinness. Tomorrow is very rainy so we plan to spend the day here.

Left Milford Marina at 4:30 to catch the favourable tides for Ireland. Wind of 6 to 10 knots from astern, but with just our big blue sail for most of the trip we made good speed. The sea state was pleasantly charm after our previous passage. Saw a whale spout about a mile away. As you can see in the pictures the new crew had to work really hard on the passage. Enjoyed Fish and chips from the chip shop just outside Kilmore marina.