Archive For The “Ireland” Category
Although 2020 was a year of big and unexpected plan changes, for us, 2021 brought even more. We started the year living on our boat in Norway and ended it living in our apartment in Seattle. In between, we travelled 4,933 nautical miles across the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to…
In late April, we continued our journey home with a 1,330-mile, 8-day run from Ireland to the Azores. We departed Dublin in strong winds, but those settled within a day and we had reasonably calm conditions most of the way. We initially were planning to start the Atlantic crossing from south Ireland, but many ports…
Our second visit to Dun Laoghaire marina outside Dublin was as enjoyable as the first. In the same berth as last time, we watched many spectacular sunrises over the harbour walls. The weather was clear and calm most days, and we took several walks, including to the end of each harbour pier. We also explored…
The River Liffey runs through the center of Dublin and has long been a source of water, recreation and commerce for the city. Trade along the river was recorded as early as the Viking days and the first bridge across was built in 1428. Up until the 1990s, cargo ships transported Guinness for export from…
Dun Laoghaire harbour was constructed in the early 1800s from stone quarried at nearby Dalkey. The old railway used to transport the rock is now a popular walking path, “The Metals”, leading to the town of Dalkey and on to the quarry in Kilkenney Park. Dalkey is an appealing town with many pubs and two…
After spending two weeks at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, we departed on the last of the ebb tide and traveled 74 miles south to Dublin, Ireland. Conditions were beautifully clear and calm in the Irish Sea, with generally positive current, and we reached our berth at Dun Laoghaire in time to enjoy Happy Hour…
For our third and final anchorage in Strangford Lough, we returned south from Mahee Island and anchored off the Quoile River. There we stepped ashore for the first time since leaving Stornoway two weeks earlier and took a long and enjoyable walk through the village of Killyleagh, north to the town of Shrigley and back…
After three nights moored off Chapel Island, we moved to the northern end of Strangford Lough to anchor off Mahee Island. On a tender tour of the area, we passed several of the nearly dozen boating clubs inside Strangford Lough. One of them was the Down Cruising Club, who stand out from the rest for…
We anchored for three nights off Chapel Island just inside Strangford Lough, NI in wonderfully calm and sunny conditions. While there, we made a tender tour of the southern end of the lough and checked out the current in the entry channel at full flood. We also took a closer look at several of the…
The 225-mile overnight run from Scalpay to Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland started and ended in positive current and calm conditions. We sped around the west shores of the Isle of Islay at 13.5 knots as the current flushed us into North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland. There the winds picked up to only…
Two massive piers, built in the early 1800s, create a huge 250-acre (101-hectare) sheltered harbour at Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary) near Dublin. Dun Laoghaire Marina is a large, 820-boat marina behind a second set of breakwaters within that protected harbour. Although the marina is outside Dublin proper, it has convenient train access to the…
While in Dublin, we made a short return trip the US to attend the Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference, held annually in Las Vegas. We arrived into San Francisco, where we spent two nights and attended an NHL (ice hockey) and an NFL (football) game, before continuing on to Las Vegas. Most of the week…
The cliff walk along Howth Head Peninsula gives sweeping views south into Dublin Bay and the town of Howth. We could see Baily Lighthouse, on Howth Head Peninsula, from Dun Laoghaire and were eager to take in the view the other way. An easy direct train ride from Dun Laoghaire brought us to Howth, where…
Trinity College, in the middle of downtown Dublin, was founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I. In 1661 it became home to The Book of Kells, a lavishly illustrated Gospel manuscript and one of the oldest books in the world. The book was produced in the 9th century at the Iona Abbey in southwest Scotland, that…
We’d been monitoring our fuel levels with the hopes of waiting until we return to Ireland in November to refuel since the prices are better there. We succeeded, and arrived at Dun Laoghaire with only 310 total gallons (1,178L) of fuel on board and needing 1,438 gallons (5,443L). Dun Laoghaire Marina has an easy-to-use fuel…
We spent our first couple of days in Dun Laoghaire exploring the area, including a visit to the nearby National Maritime Museum of Ireland and a late-afternoon walk around downtown Dublin. We strolled along statue-filled O’Connell Street, Dublin’s main thoroughfare, and along the River Liffey that runs through town, where the many bridges are beautifully…
We returned to the Republic of Ireland at Dublin after four months in the UK. Conditions on the overnight run from Liverpool were rougher than predicted, with winds blowing 30-40 kts on the bow and a maximum pitch of 21.9°. But the winds eventually settled down and we had calm weather for the last part…
Belfast Harbour Marina opened in 2009 in the city’s rejuvinated Titanic Quarter and provides an excellent base for accessing the city. The marina is the first we’ve been to that is completely self-serve: moorage can’t be reserved in advance and is paid daily through a ticket machine similar to that in a car park. We…