We slip out of Sneem as dawn....
...is breaking. Ghosting out under sail, leaving the tranquility undisturbed.
25 knots of northerly breeze fill in as we clear Scariff Island...
...and beat up, inshore, under towering cliffs and rolling hills. Puffins rise from the water and fly, low over the wave tops, orange feet trailing, wings beating frantically.
We ease sheets off Valentia Island. Dolphins gambol alongside, criss - crossing under our bow....
...as Stargazer, makes 6-7 knots, swooping over the swell.
Sculptural.....
....kaleidoscopic...
....cliffs guard the entrance to...
Dingle Harbour. Fungi, the resident dolphin, shoots past close under our port side. A tripper boat speeds over. I round up to drop sail, as Fungi pulls a leap for the crowd!
PS - HERE IS POST 39 (THE BULL ROCK SLEIGH RIDE) WITH THE PICTURES ADDED:
Sat 3.8.13: Sneem, the Kenmare River.
The breeze is down to 24 knots from the west, as we leave Castletownbere harbour.
The blue-black sea is white crested and furrowed deeply by the wind, out in Bantry Bay.
A rainbow arches across the horizon. Prelude to a ten minute, 30 knot, black squall - followed immediately by clear skies and sunshine.
Stargazer clambers out over the swell; hard on the wind, under double reefed main - more mountain goat than boat, today.
Bull Rock rears vertically out of the surging seas, its creased brown flanks stream white with spume. An arc of sky blue, at its base, reveals a tunnel cut clean through the rock, by the tumbling waves.
We bear off, for the Kenmare River. It's dead downwind. We 'sail the angles,' gybing our way in; under full sail, now that the wind is free. Another black squall comes through. Stargazer's bow wave climbs aft and rises alongside us, like two white walls. For five minutes we're planing at 9-10 knots!
I dowse the jib and reach into Sneem, dodging round the necklace of green, shrub topped, low cliffed, islands, which protect the anchorage. Brightly coloured rowing gigs battle in the channel ahead. It's Sneem Regatta. I round up and drop the main, as a French flagged, square rigger follows us in.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Green Street,Dingle,Ireland
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