Position: -9 23.74, 51 28.82

The winds came up from the south yesterday, bringing waves and swell in through the entrance channel. With our bow to the waves, we were perfectly comfortable in our heavy boat. But overnight the winds switched to the southwest, putting is beam-to the swell with rolls over 13 degrees.

We decided to put out the flopper-stopper this morning to get a better sleep tonight, but found that several of the attachments had siezed up from sea water and lack of use. We’ve always stored them in one of the cockpit lockers and never had any trouble all through the Southern Hemisphere, so perhaps this was another casualty of the North Atlantic crossing.

With liberal application of penetrating oil and patience, we got everything working again and then had the flopper-stopper deployed in minutes. We’ll keep the rigging in the dry flybridge brow going forward.

Position: -9 23.73, 51 28.81

James removed the suction control valve from our spare fuel pump to see if a new one would fix our 1347.7 code the main engine started signaling on our way to Sherkin Island. The engine is (thankfully) no longer constantly producing 1347.7 codes so we have it back in use. It’s a relief to have more time to figure this issue out but, the bad news is the problem is still there and it going to be challenging to figure out the cause.

It now only produces a 1347.7 code rarely when lifting or dropping anchor and will never code under any condition underway at any engine load. Between coding all the time and the improved situation now, we have changed the SCV, corrected a fuel cooling sea water flow, and fixed a control system problem that had the engine room running hotter. We would love to have the problem of figuring out which of these three changes is the cause of the problem. It’s easy to put the old SCV back, shut off the fuel cooler, or raise the ER temperature. We will try all three but strongly suspect that it’s just fluke and it’s actually none of the three conditions we changed.

When chasing intermittent issues that rarely happen, it’s frustrating not having access to the engine manufacturer diagnostic software. The condition is highly unlikely to occur if we pay to have a technician on the boat and, when we see it, we don’t have access to the detailed information available from the diagnostic software. Hopefully some marine engine manufacturer will realize that it could be a competitive advantage and certainly would improve customer satisfaction to have this information available to operators using the engines in secluded places where service personal are often not readily available.

Position: -9 22.46, 51 28.94

Moored on the dinghy dock in Baltimore Harbour.

Position: -9 22.47, 51 28.95

Baltimore Harbour charges a fee of €2 for the dinghy. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us that the gate code to return to the dock is different from the one used to exit. So when we returned to the dinghy, we couldn’t get back through the gate. James climbed over to let Jennifer in.

Position: -9 22.39, 51 29.00

Some form of castle or fortified house has stood on this hill above Baltimore since the early 1200s. The latest, Dun na Sead Castle, fell into disuses in the 1700s and also was owned by the O’Driscolls clan who owned Dun na Long Castle on Sherkin Island.

Position: -9 22.39, 51 29.00

We were expecting Baltimore to have more of a commercial fishing town feel, but it was an attractive town with several water-view restaurants and pubs. We had an excellent lunch on the deck at Bushe pub.

Position: -9 22.42, 51 28.94

St. Matthew’s Church of Ireland is relatively new for the area, being built in 1810.

Position: -9 22.57, 51 28.78

Several well-marked trails run in the Baltimore area. We are on the Beacon Walk to Beacon Point.

Position: -9 22.82, 51 28.73

A beautiful white pony stood near the roadside, seemingly posing for pictures.

Position: -9 22.87, 51 28.61

There’s our goal. We expected it would be further, but the Beacon is only a 20-minute walk from town.

Position: -9 23.24, 51 28.44

The fabulous coastal view southwest from just behind the beacon.

Position: -9 23.27, 51 28.42

Jennifer enjoying the view across the harbor entry toward the lighthouse we visited yesterday.

Position: -9 23.24, 51 28.43

The cliffs east of Beacon Point. We’re sure loving the scenery in Ireland—and these aren’t even close to the most impressive cliffs.

Position: -9 22.76, 51 28.61

We followed a trail parallel to Beacon Road and up into the hills hoping to reach the cliffs east of the point. This is looking southwest back to the beacon from that trail.

Position: -9 22.34, 51 28.53

We couldn’t find a way to reach the cliffs through the private property surrounding it, but did get a good view to the Kedge Point Signal Tower we’d passed en route to Baltimore Harbour.

Position: -9 22.36, 51 28.56

This house along the road had a staircase leading to a non-opening window. Perhaps it was a door at one point.

Position: -9 22.16, 51 28.77

The buildings and grounds of Rolf’s Country House were simply beautiful. We would have loved to have stopped for a pint on their patio, but the restaurant wasn’t yet open for the day.

Position: -9 22.46, 51 29.04

We returned into town along the commercial waterfront, where several capable-looking vessels were moored. This looks like one of the ferries that runs to Sherkin Island.

Position: -9 22.44, 51 29.01

Looking up to the town of Baltimore across a waterfront park.

Position: -9 22.39, 51 28.98

We stopped off at Jacob’s Bar for a glass of wine and with a waterfront view before returning back to Dirona.

Position: -9 22.39, 51 28.98

This picture at Jacob’s Bar shows the entrance to Baltimore Harbour during a major storm, with spray hitting the beacon high up on the cliff. We’d not want to be anywhere near those conditions in Dirona.

That was one of the many appeals of Kinsale as a landfall on our Atlantic crossing: the big winds typically comes from the southwest so if we did make landfall during bad weather, we’d likely be in the lee of the Old Head well before we entered the harbor.