On Inisheer beach - ND on anchor in background
We had a lovely cruise in September 2009.
T42 (Johnny Sothern) and Crystal Voyager (Capt. Ron) and ND set sail for Inisheer with sunshine and a following easterly wind. Beautiful conditions. Wind died and we motored into Inisheer for lunch in Ti Ruairi’s ( couldn’t be anywhere else with Ruairi on board!)
Ruairi Tony and Aonghus rowing ashore on Inisheer
After lunch we headed over to Kilronan and had the pleasure of entering Killeanny Bay (Aonghus’s home port) under spinnaker. Inisheer is grand for a lunch stop but the only safe overnight anchorage is at Kilronan. Having said that you can tuck in at the inshore end of Inisheer Pier if the swell is not bad -Aonghus has done it in Rasputin. I prefer to anchor off.
Johnny Ruairi Aonghus and Ron – all feeling very pleased after a great day’s sail.
We had dinner in the local hotel in Kilronan and all three boats planned to leave next morning for Roundstone. Poor old Ron had an argument with his toe during the night and toe came off worst so T42 and Nighean Donn set sail for Roundstone while Crystal Voyager pointed for home.
En route to Roundstone we decided to pay a visit to the holy island of St Macdara. Well worth a visit but some careful navigation required approaching Macdara Strait. Several other local boats visited while we roamed the island – very popular place. Church had been nicely restored I had seen images of it in books with the roof fallen in dating from the 70’s. Ruairi wasn’t too impressed with a dead sheep in the gated doorway of the church.
Johnny was great company on the trip and we enjoyed the “cruise in company”. He was very proud of his “wireless technology” on board T42 and we were very impressed with his spinnaker bag!
We arrived in Roundstone to be met by Louise, Rian and Agnes, and by a stroke of good fortune we were able to enjoy the great sight of the many winners of the Roundstone Connemara Pony show being paraded up the street, introduced as they came down the hill onto the main street, by the great Paddy the Yank, who joined us in O’Dowd’s afterwards for a celebratory drink. again we anchored off in very sheltered waters rather than using the visitor moorings situated very inconveniently at the other side of the channel.
We also met up with fellow GBSC sailor John Coyne who sailed in with his boat Lir.
Johnny gave us a great fry up on T42 that night. (Aonghus was concerned the grub would go off if not eaten,……)
Next morning we headed south. Under Aonghus’s guidance we sailed close by Mace Head and anchored off Mason Island which in the lovely sunshine we were enjoying was like finding a little piece of heaven on earth
Johnny took some lovely snaps which he posted on his family site – think we were all struck by the lonely beauty of the place.
After we left Mason, we headed back up to Macdara before we could safely steer southwards towards Golam and home.
Having rounded Golam, we found we were still beating into an easterly so we started up the iron tops’l for the long slog east to GBSC. Johnny reckoned his OB was running on fumes by the time we landed!
Nighean Donn's Blog 