Category: Ireland

We cast off at 1400. Everything went fine, but I was feeling anxious and scared for some reason. After another All Stations Safety Call came in on my radio—it makes a very annoying, loud warning sound and then automatically switches to the channel selected by the station—I tried to reset everything and worked my way through various menus when nothing happened. I do it all the time, but being the nervous wreck that I was, I selected the wrong menu and ended up triggering an All-Stations Urgency Call myself. Before I could undo anything, Dublin Coast Guard was already asking what was going on. I explained my mishap and they reacted very kindly and then I heard on Channel 16, “All stations… please cancel the urgency call sent from the sailing yacht Amy, call sign…, MMSI…, etc., it was triggered by mistake”… a bit embarrassing. Oh well.

Continue reading “Kilmore Quay”

As is often the case, it turned out to be even shittier than I’d feared. But once underway, there’s nothing you can do about it anyway, so you just take what comes. There’s really not much else to say about this 110-nautical-mile trip. It was very rough, wet, and windy, and I’m glad that, apart from a tear in the sprayhood seam caused by waves washing over the bow and a bit of water below deck (also from those waves), nothing else got damaged.

Continue reading “Dun Laoghaire, Dublin Bay”