Nigel Nomad

After 7 days exploring the Dublin area, which include touching the statue of Molly Mallon for luck. As you can see from the picture you seem to get double lucky touches. We made our 1st passage of leg 6 to Carlingford. With a brisket wind of mid to late 20 knots we made good speed. Leaving as the sun rowse. The dog leg in the track is a course change made to miss some rain which worked well. We berthed in the small marina near Carlingford and prepared to sit out the even higher wind forecast for tomorrow.

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.

This was our big passage, leaving at 16.30 after a slap up Sunday roast in the pub. As ever the wind gods like to test us so we had to sail due north and hope the wind veered east later. Our sacrifices to the wind gods worked and we managed to point more Easterly over the passage. So no tacking required (hurrah). However the wave gods were less happy and the waves and point of sail made for a very rough passage with the odd sea water shower. You will see from the pictures we had to be creative in finding places to sleep. A few Pods of Dolphins swam with us and the stars were lovely. Locked into the marina at 18.30 in time for dinner at the pub.

The wind direct changed again so we relocated to New Grimsby, Tresco. We had a nice sail in 15 knots of wind and picked up a mooring. Explored both Tresco and Bryher including Cromwell's castle (pictured).

Due to a change in wind direction and the fact we had drunk all the beer in the pub (not really). We had to relocate to a new anchorage.

We made a short sail to get to anchorage with better wind protection so we could enjoy the next couple of days. We picked up some weed so I had to brave the cold water to check we had lost it all. Had a good walk around the Island of St Agnus and enjoyed a nice pint in the Island's pub.

The wind gods did not smile on us for this passage as the wind was more westerly than we had hoped. This ment we had to motor from off Lands end to the Isle of Scilly. After a couple of rain showers the weather brightened. We could not find space in our first choice anchorage so ended up in St Mary's bay. We ventured ashore for a meal with the dinghy ride back to Nomad being a little tricky in the dark.