Top Cat Irish Cruise 2003

SE Ireland Summer Cruise on Top Cat 2003

Total trip 502 nautical miles

Pwllheli

Saturday 23 Aug 2003 1421z.
Wind NW 2-4 then Calm.

It was not until the last few days prior to our holiday that we knew exactly where we would be going. The nature of sailing means we are always left to nature with respect to destination. The weather was favourable although there was very little wind forecast, in actual fact the wind dropped off to nothing shortly after departure. This unfortunately meant starting the 'donkey' (engines), Top Cat will only reach 5 knots under power, this would mean a much longer and uncomfortable passage due to noise. She will go quicker than this, but currently the propellers are incorrect sizes, so cruising speed is somewhere around 4.5 kts.

23 Aug 2003 1820z.
17.44 nm 4.4 kts (average)
Distance to go 51.83 nm ETA 13 hours 0720z at Arklow

Last landfall before Ireland Bardsey Lighthouse can be seen. Note the mirror sea starting to appear. Changes to destination will now mean the most direct route, instead of Wicklow we will now head for Arklow.

We started a watch system of four hours on four hours off, I slept first as Tanya prefers the early morning / day watches and I have no problems generally staying awake through the night. This system suits us well. During an uneventful night Top Cat took us over to Ireland. Sally the autopilot, don’t ask! Kept a great course and we made landfall a little earlier than my ETA, but it was still a long night.

To keep myself awake I had started dancing to music in the cockpit, alone at night I was Travolta, perfect execution of all the moves. I had not taken dancing this seriously since I was playing pop stars in the front room to my parents music, when I was seven years old.

Once I had got myself out of breath I put on my favourite Jack Dee comedy CD’s and spent the rest of the trip laughing. It is a little odd at first laughing away in the middle of the sea with no one to see. Thank you Jack for keeping me awake in the dead hours when I had nothing else to do. Occasionally we had a pod of dolphins arrive to see what we were up to. Although these sometimes took me unawares in the dead of night and I would find myself jumping with fright when a dolphin would take a breath through his blowhole along side where I was sat.

Arklow

Sunday 24 Aug 2003 0615z.
Distance 69.27 nm
Time taken 15h 55m Average speed 4.35 kts.

We could not head straight for Arklow from Pwllheli as the large Arklow sand bank runs north-south about 8 miles offshore, this means dropping about 6 miles south and heading north into Arklow.

We arrived at the entrance to Arklow at 0615z. This meant we had averaged 4.35 kts across the Irish Sea, not very good at all. Had we kept the wind we started in we should have averaged nearer to 6 kts. Though this would have meant arriving at Arklow in the dark, so I suppose it wasn't’t so bad after all.

Here you see the harbour entrance, Arklow has some small commercial vessels, but is mostly now pleasure craft. A few ships were anchored outside the entrance, but generally things were very quiet.

24 Aug 2003 0636z

We were welcomed into Arklow by hundreds and hundreds of seagulls lining each wall of the entrance, it was like Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’.

When you enter Arklow you have the choice whether to enter the small marina to port just before the moorings or to tie alongside long visitors pontoons which run alongside the bank just past the marina entrance.

We chose to moor on the long visitors pontoon, the image bottom left shows Top Cat on this pontoon. After a small breakfast we both put our heads down for a couple of hours. Once feeling refreshed we went for a walk into town. The town is on the opposite bank so you have to cross the bridge and then cross the main road the N11.

This bridge carries the N11 Dublin to Wexford Road. This is an incredibly busy road which nearly ruins such a beautiful town. Crossing it was scary to say the least. This town is desperately in need of a by-pass.

Since writing this account I have been e-mailed by a fellow Irish sailor who wrote to tell me, ‘Arklow does have a bypass, you should have seen that road before it was built!’. So I stand corrected, but it was still one hell of a road to cross.

On the other side of the bridge is Noel O’Tooles furniture emporium. I am not sure why this place interests me so much, maybe because it looks like a pub, or maybe as our first real impression of Ireland it was such an Irish name. There is a picture of Noel O’Tooles here.

We had a wander around the town and found a small restaurant to eat in around dinner time. We went for a traditional Irish fair and walked back to the boat bloated and a little merry.

By now I was starting to feel the pain of staying awake the night before and was ready to turn in. We sat up in the cockpit with a glass of wine watching a beautiful sunset over Arklow, turning in at 2100.