Towards Spain

We´re off! We´ve finally thrown the moorings and set sail towards Spain. It´s a bumpy ride on the sea today, uncomfortable waves, but otherwise Ingeborgs doing fine. We started with all sails doing 8,5 knots SOG but the wind increased so now it´s genoa and mizzen doing 9-10 SOG. Right now we´re north east of Wexford. Think it will be less wind in the night and hopefully the waves will be more settled when we´re south of Ireland.

To make life more interestingt  we made bets on the ETA. The winner gets a dinner and you´re free to bring someone ;)

/Lotta, on a mission towards the sun
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Waiting for that window...

We're waiting in Arklow for a weather window. It looks like it's coming. We're just hoping it won't close before it's opened. Right now there's a nasty low over the Atlantic, W of the Bay of Biscay which is giving us some strong S-SE winds. When it passes, either tomorrow or on saturday, we're expecting easterlies which will be perfect for crossing to Spain if they only last long enough.We need five days as we have a distance of some 580M. That far ahead the predictions are a bit uncertain, but at least they look good now.

People back home are asking us why we don't make any progress. We are. We might not be putting a lot of distance under the keel but we are keeping up foreign relations and building relationships. We've met so many great people and made new friends. To us, that's half the pleasure. Sailing off season means that marina fees (very few anchorages here) are reasonable and people are more accessible and eager to chat for a while. The other cruisers we meet, few as they may be, are all in the same boat, so if nothing else there's a common point of interest there.

However, autumn is here. The weather is still quite warm and we hear that this has been one of the mildest autumns in Ireland for years but the trees are starting to turn brown or red and the nights are crisp and clear. Yesterday they played White Christmas at the internet café and in the stores you can buy christmas decorations and marvel over the christmas offers! In october, come on! We do long for warmer weather, tapas and cheap red wine. That means it's time for us to get our asses out of the wagon, cross the bloody bay and start bumming around another country and leave the Irish to their christmas decorations.

/Hampus, in Arklow, hiding from Santa.

Ode to the kindness of strangers

So we´re set to go, thanks to a lovely bunch of people. We met two gentlemen in Port Ellen, Scotland, and met again in Glenarm, Northern Ireland, where we also had the pleasure of meeting their lovely wives. Our sail had just torn, making our budget a bit strained and they offered us a mooring in Strangford lough. A lovely offer we took up on and as if that wasn´t enough, the one couple´s been kind enough to drive us around to a sail maker and a chandlery in the area and the other couple invited us to their home for dinner (and laundry). Thank god for the kindness of strangers! Strangers that become friends we hope to meet again.

/Lotta and Hampus

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?

Those of you who are following us on the spot and may wonder: yes, we did turn around and went back to Bangor Marina. A winch broke and a thingamajig holding the jib broke. Not our lucky day. On the "bright side of life" we met our friends Gunn and Ola on Norwegian s/y Idun again and the Dutch couple Jef and Marin on the catamaran Miss Poe and had a great evening. From the lovely Gunn and Ola we got a present - a book about celestial navigation. Since everything else is failing you..., they said. It´s so nice being in the presence of good friends. Thank you.

/Lotta and Hampus

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You win some and loose some...

We finally left Port Ellen, Scotland, and made the crossing over the North Channel to Glenarm, Northern Ireland. It was a gusty sail with temporary winds that made Ingeborg´s bow and front go under water a lot. You know what? The fore peak wasn´t saoked! Not even the slightest bit wet. Luckily we managed to seal the leak.

But as I keep whistling I must tell you that our heater just died. Not nice, Herr Eberspächer is a dear friend to us, here´s humid and it seems to rain at least once a day. I guess you win some and loose some... And talking about loosing, today on the way to Bangor (in Belfast loch) we lost a hatch cover. Over all it was a nice sail, sunny with up to 38 knots of wind (19 m/s) and the tide adding about two knots to our speed.

/Lotta, on the mission to find retailer of Eberspächer in Bangor. If anyone knows where the closest one in Ireland is, please let us know. Haven´t got internet access here.

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Always look on the bright side...

On the way here the genoa shred. Not good, not good at all. Our budget seems to disappear in a faster speed than we´re able to sail - alarming! But on the good side, and you shouldn´t forget about that one;), better here than on the way crossing the Biscay! When we after a bumpy sail in rain and wind and moody about the and just longing for a cup of tea in front of the hissing eberspächer, we climb down only to find that there´s been a rather big leak in the fore peak and everything´s soaking wet. So one day of sailing equals at least three day´s of work; find the leak, dismount the front hatch, replace it, seal, sanding, varnish, do laundry, cleaning.
Well, I try to think of the song "always look on the bright side of life" and whistle along.

We´re in Port Ellen on the little island of Islay. It´s a good place to be "harbored" in, with the most decent harbor fee we´ve come across here, 14 pounds. No facilities but a friendly pub around the corner. There´s eight distilleries on the island. Yesterday Hampus and friend from Norwegian Idun went to Laphroige´s, which is situated just a walking distance from the harbor. The weather´s keeping us here at least one more day and hey!, whistle along, "always look..." we couldn´t go anyway until

Thanks all of you who´s been e-mailing us, it´s good to know that someone actually IS reading what you write. And anyone who IS reading, please DO feel free to comment. It´s good fun hearing from you all!

/Lotta, a bit cheered up by the fact that someone wrote to us about their boat, one just like ours, and said it´s been on a circumnavigation and over the Atlantic twice, this must mean that Ingeborg´s not sinking yet although she´s seems to be falling apart. Darn, I forgot, but now I whistle as I continue to write...

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Dum dum dum dum... (like in the Jaws!)

We´ve ordered a life raft from Ardfern Chandlery and have now anchored in a lagoon just outside the Ardfern bay, waiting for it to get there. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow or the day after. We left Oban yesterday, a nice place with really friendly people. The same day we left we got invited for a drink at Thomas 60ft yacht, we´d rather be there but here!

On the way here Hampus said: Shark! My respone was: Shark! Funnier in swedish where shark means Hello (at least it does in Skåne: Haj!). But it really was one! A rather big one, approximately 2-3 m. Didn´t really know they liked these cold waters.

A lot of you other cruisers have already crossed the Bay of Biscay now. I guess that we´d ought to by now too. We had a long talk about that a forth night ago. We really should hurry before bad weather, but then we would have had to go straight there and just rush by all these lovely cool places. It didn´t really feel any good for either of us. It felt quite the opposite. This is why we, especially I, like to sail, to see new places, meet new friends. Another fact is that I don´t manage to sail on an everyday basis due to my bad back. I kind of dread the Bay of Biscay for that reason. (But hey, that´s another day!) So we decided to do this at our own pace. Don´t know where (and when) it will take us.

If anyone feel up to going with us, crossing the Bay of Biscay, just let us know. We chose the four person raft so there´s plenty of room...

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