It's a simple thing, but I have longed to circumnavigate The Kish Lighthouse for a long time. Plainly visible form Dublin Bay, it shines in the sunlight by day and lit at night.
September 26th was bright and breezy, with F3 to 4 from the South. Perfect for reaching out and back.
This is looking back at Poolbeg, with familiar landmarks.
Martin, Thomas and I sailed out, passing the usual ferries and marvelling at the beautiful day.
The Lighthouse marks The Kish Bank, a shallow sandbank about 7 miles out from Dublin.
When you're sailing towards a clearly visible object like this, it seems to take longer than it should, but at 3 to 4 knots, we made steady progress.
It was constructed in Dun Laoghaire and towed out in 1965. The whole edifice is telescopic, with each cylindrical section nested inside the other.
On top of it's 30m, there is a helicopter landing platform. The son of a friend of mine, who is a helicopter pilot in the Irish Air Corps, has landed on top in training exercises. I'm not even a little bit jealous !
There is plenty depth all around but we had to watch out for pot markers.
We zipped around within touching distance and headed for Poolbeg. The wind was on the beam, so we reached along and topped out at 6 knots, ZigZags fastest under sail so far. Later, the wind shifted to more over the stern, so we changed to wing on wing and flew home.
It was perfect sailing, memorable because it's so seldom.
What a picture of easy sailing !
We couldn't have hoped for a better day. Six hours on the water and smiles all round.
Kish Lighthouse is located at 53°18.65′N 5°55.542′W and the light sequence is Fl (2) 20s.
Perfect! You'll remember that trip all winter..
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