Cape Clear > Baltimore

Overlooking North Harbour on Cape

The night was blissfully calm and quiet. We get up and make a leisurely start before heading to Séan Rua’s for a full Irish breakfast. We have a very enjoyable breakfast at one of the picnic tables on the pier. Then we get Laura ready and send her off back to Baltimore on the 12:00 am ferry. Again, it feels a bit strange seeing her head off by herself! We’re waiting for the tide to turn and the wind to come around to the west southwest, se won’t be leaving ourselves for another few hours. . 

In the mean time, I’m thinking about pictures I’ve seen of the castle ruins on Cape and wondering if we can get a closer look at it. We start by heading to the Tourist Office and asking if there is a path leading to the castle. The girl there tells us to walk past the graveyard, then take a left and another left. There will be a strand or you can go through the fields. We head up the road, pass the graveyard, turn left but then find ourselves unsure about where to go next. We decide to head off across the field, and find ourselves overlooking the spectacular remains of the castle perched on a tiny island of a rock jutting out into the ocean. We can even make out the Fastnet Rock in the dip between the main island and the promontory on which the castle is perched. 

Dún an Óir castle

We walk back to the pontoons and prepare the boat to leave. A group of sailors off another boat walk past on the pontoon and heap more praise on Treo. We slip our lines and Eileen drives us out of the harbour and into Roaringwater Bay. The weather is calm and there is almost no wind at all. I keep trying different combinations of sail before giving up and taking them down again. As we pass the Catalogues the wind finally arrives from the west. We raise the sails and have a cracking sail through the Sound and into Baltimore Harbour. A Laser sailboat approaches from astern as we pass the Narrows Ledge off the northeastern tip of Sherkin. I’m tempted to put out more sail but I restrain myself. A bit of tweaking of the sails is sufficient to keep him astern. Laura is watching from the Jolie Brise and texts to say “where are you going to turn for Baltimore?”.

11/07/2018

F0-3 

Sunny and hot

R & E 

Cape Clear to Baltimore