Sun 7th July
There were strong wind warnings for later in the day, so we decided to stay in Kinsale and have a look around the town.
Having originally planned the trip in some detail based on an anticlockwise circumnavigation, the skipper spent a couple of hours planning the next week’s route, in order to make best use of the ‘favourable clockwise’ tides. We had been unable to fix up a crew for the 6th week, so we had to plan on getting back to Bangor within 3 weeks. We decided to leapfrog the possible ports along the south coast, with a view to getting to Dingle by the weekend. We would then have 2 weeks left to either go up the west coast and home or return anticlockwise along the south and east coasts. Leapfrogging ports on week 3 also gave us the option to visit the other alternate ports on the way back, if we returned along the south coast.
During the morning we inflated the dinghy for the boys to play in but Rory managed to frighten Bob with his recently acquired outboard driving skills and they quickly returned back to the boat. However having the inflated dinghy proved to be a ‘boat saver’. Maggie noticed a Squib drifting off down the estuary, so Rory and Dad went to the rescue in the dinghy. The Squib had broken away from her mooring and we were able to grab the remains of her mooring chain and stop her drifting into the shallows. But we had difficulties trying to tow her and a passing yacht took her in tow instead, while we went back to the pontoons to pick-up one of the marina staff. He boarded the Squib and took her to a spare mooring. He indicated that it was a fairly common occurrence.
In the afternoon we explored some of the back streets of the town and then, having met up with the boys, we walked out to Summer Cove. By the time we arrived there it was spitting with rain, so we sheltered in the pub (well, that’s the skipper’s excuse) and were stuck there when the heavens opened. It was still raining after a few packets of crisps, so we retreated by taxi back to Kinsale – the boys didn’t have raincoats!
Later we ate ashore – initial attempts to get Mum to eat in Mamma Mia’s Pizzeria failed miserably. Kinsale is the gourmet capital of Ireland but we couldn’t agree on a restaurant to suit the difference in tastes between the teenage and adult palates. Eventually we settled for dinner in the Little Skillet restaurant.
The new crew were heavily into cards, especially the two boys. So we settled down to start learning ‘7’s’, Whist, Oh Hell, Go Fish and Jack Change It. The skipper wasn’t into Bridge, so there were also some games of 3-handed Bridge.