In February of 2016, we completed our longest passage ever: 3,700nm across the South Atlantic from St. Helena to Barbados. And in May of this year, we completed our worst passage ever: 2,800nm across the North Atlantic through three gales from Newport, RI to Kinsale, Ireland. In between, we’ve cruised the West Atlantic between Florida…
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Sherkin Island
Sherkin Island in Baltimore Harbour has ruins dating from the 1400s, including a castle and a friary. The island also has some excellent walking trails with views to Baltimore Harbour and the Atlantic Ocean, and two pubs, also with water views. Trip highlights from June 12th through 14th at Sherkin Island, Ireland. Click any image…
Kinsale, Ireland
Kinsale was a wonderful place to make landfall into Ireland. As is often the case, the original idea to go to Kinsale was passed on by a blog reader. The town is considered the gourmet capital of Ireland, which is one of the reasons we decided to enter Ireland here rather than at Crosshaven on…
Old Head of Kinsale
The Old Head of Kinsale was a welcome sight for us at the completion of our 2,800nm passage from Newport, RI to Kinsale, Ireland. With a sunny weather forecast, we took the opportunity to make the 8-mile bike ride to get a closer look and take in the sweeping view from the restored signal tower….
Two Laps Around Fastnet Rock
Fastnet Rock is the most southern point in Ireland and the light on it is known world-wide, partly because it is the turn-around point of the classic ocean sailing race of the same name. We’ve now had Dirona at the location of several notable offshore races, including Vic-Maui, Transpac (San Pedro to Diamond Head), Sydney…
James Fort
Construction began on James Fort in 1602 after the English victory over the Spanish and Irish in the 1601 Battle of Kinsale. The fort fell into neglect, and became known as “Old Fort”, once contruction began in 1678 on Charles Fort across the harbour. While James Fort isn’t nearly the tourist attraction that Charles Fort…
Kinsale Pub Crawl
Despite our best efforts, we didn’t come close to visiting all the pubs in Kinsale, let alone all the restaurants. The problem seems as challenging as in Halifax, NS, despite Kinsale having a population of only 5,000 compared to Halifax’s 316,000. We’re told that at one point Kinsale had 38 pubs. And we didn’t have…
Charles Fort
Charles Fort was completed in 1682 at Kinsale and is one of the largest military installations in Ireland. The fort is open to the public and receives over 85,000 visitors a year. It’s an easy 45-minute waterfront walk from the marina, with two pubs along the way. Trip highlights from May 27th in Kinsale, Ireland…
Cork, Ireland
Cork is Ireland’s second largest city and is about a 45-minute bus ride from Kinsale. The main reason we went there was to pickup a SIM card for cellular data, and after we we had a great time touring around this urban but historic river city and, of course, checking out a couple of pubs….
North Atlantic Gales
On our 2,800nm North Atlantic passage from Newport, RI to Ireland we passed through three gales. The first two were in the initial week of the passage, before we turned the corner south of the Grand Banks. It was during the first gale that we battled a water ingress issue that set off alarms a…
