Sunday Sailing

Sunny Sunday 22 March, forecast 12  to 15 Knots SouthWest, brownie points on board and here go. Thomas and I head for the open sea.

Out through Dublin Port, passing all the big stuff.

It takes us about 20 minutes to motor down the channel and clear the lights at Poolbeg.

A few other sailboats have gone ahead, we can see their sails on the horizon. They were too far away to photograph, so I got the Stena Line instead.

We head towards Howth and The Bailey Lighthouse. Nice steady breeze and blue water.

I love the red sails on Smuggler, if I had a saxaphone, I would learn how to play "Red Sails in the Sunset"

Just past the headland of The Bailey, we noticed a grey line of rough water. In the space of 200 metres, the seas  doubled, wind piped up to the forecast 15 knots and the sky went gray. We had full main and genoa up, so trying to heave to and reef, we spun around and ended up speeding back home. Easing off the main and cursing the lack of quick reefing, we took off. Afterwards, we saw on Navionics that we had reached 7.3 knots ! That was full sail, broad reach and with the tide. A little bit of a knife-edge in a little day-sailor.

Anyway, all on board were happy, so we barrelled on.

The Dublin Pilot boat took a look at us, so we waved and they carried on.

Sunshine changes everything, especially the mood of hairy old sailors !

On home across the bay and bit by bit the sea calmed. Even the wildlife came out to play.

Back to our mooring and little Smuggler all tied up, but ready for more fun.