Seaway

A very rocky and rolly day.

Sunshine

Yet another beautiful day, but this time it really started to heat up.

Scottish Highlands

Today was very beautiful, we passed by the Scottish highlands.

Gushing water

We were very rolly today, nothing to bad except when Chris went to make coffee, hot water gushed out all over the counter.

Into the Baltic

A very busy day for everyone, lots of tours, work party, I went shopping, cleaned and organized the galley. As soon as tours were over we started to get off the dock, fill the water just that much more and cast our lines off for Poland.

The galley is mine

The galley is once again all mine, I started the day off strong by making 12 loaves of bread. Jesse said he heard a kid knock on the mizzen down in the tweens and say. “It’s the mizzen.” Jesse thought the kid was really smart, but then realized he had said, “It’s amazing.”

The galley is mine

The galley is once again all mine, I started the day off strong by making 12 loaves of bread. Jesse said he heard a kid knock on the mizzen down in the tweens and say. “It’s the mizzen.” Jesse thought the kid was really smart, but then realized he had said, “It’s amazing.”

Produce market and day off

We took an easy day off, but did some work in the morning. Jesse, Doug and I went to a Friday market where they sold lots of produce and since that’s mostly what I need it was perfect. The first guy I ended up talking to helped us immensely, we got things by the case and he delivered it. At first he wasn’t going to, but with us having bought so much he was willing to oblige.

After everything was brought to the boat and I put it away Jesse, Chris, Tenley and I went to the museum, they had a ton of natural history exhibits. At the end of the night Doug took Jesse and I out to dinner, Thai food.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

We arrived in Belfast in the morning and I was able to finish cataloging all the charts just after lunch. Marcia is cooking tomorrow while I have the day off, but I’m going shopping to at a produce market in the morning. Then I’ll be cooking again.

Never ending charts and chocolate cake

More time organizing charts in the morning and the afternoon was spent baking cake for Sam’s birthday and hanging out on deck. It was so calm today, the water almost glassy.

Charts!!!

I can’t believe how much more there is to do with the charts, no more updates, but lots of organizing. There are a lot of bags of old charts for other places that live in the laz, we’ve brought them up and are putting them in the right section, number order and I’m writing down information about the edition and when it was last corrected.

To Belfast we go

We got off the dock and everything was grey and damp, we are headed for Belfast.

Kingsale

Jesse and I went to Kingsale today, he went here last time he was in Ireland and really liked it. We walked around the town and had a great day out in fabulous weather.

Day off

Finally had a day off in Ireland, it was almost torture to see the other watch off running around having fun. Jesse, Doug and I went to the Butter Museum in the morning; there was a video from 1995 about how the butter industry got started. Ireland has always been big on dairy products and making butter, in the ‘60’s they started to actually think about their butter and exporting it, they made the brand Kerrygold and got started from there. In the museum there were all kinds of styles of butter churn, ones you swing or spin, glass ones for the table and even one they found in a bog. Doug had a good time remembering his childhood, he grew up on a farm and they got big chunks of butter from the dairy everyday.

At noon we meet Richard, Grant, Tenley and Chris at the bus station to go to Blarney Castle. It took a long time to get to the top of the castle, it was very skinny corridors, and a tiny spiral staircase, but mostly it was crowded which I hadn’t really expected. The castle was made of stone and it used to have wood floors, but not any more, so on the ground floor you could see all the way to the top, through three rooms. Finally we got to kiss the Blarney stone, you lay on your back and stretch you neck down a hole and kiss a blue grey stone that’s in the castle’s wall.

Spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the grounds, there was a poison garden with lots of poisonous plants, hemlock, wolfs bane, rhubarb. At an area called the Rock Close there were a lot of rocks related to the Druids, it use to be their settlement, wishing steps, a rock that looked like a witch, stone circle and a fairy glade.

After dinner a bunch of us went to see more Irish folk music, this time it was really good.

More weeklys

Turn to was really late today, got to sleep in and take it easy. I didn’t have to make dinner, so in the afternoon I went over some more chart things with John, got new weekly updates to do. After we were stood down we went to the bar for dinner, hamburgers and sausages.

Cork, Ireland

We arrived in Cork, Ireland before lunch, from Cobh harbor where we were anchored to Cork was beautiful. I spent more time at the computer continuing to organize more lists about charts and the bar across the street invited us for dinner tomorrow night.

Potato scrubbing and inventory

I spent the morning with Marcia, washing potatoes and putting grilled cheese sandwiches together and the afternoon in the office breaking my neck staring at the computer. John had me reorganize and fill in data for the chart inventory.

To Cork

Got off the dock this morning with no trouble, headed for Cork, Ireland.

22 people

I believe this was the slowest tour day I have ever seen, we had about 22 people all day. Not only were we in a bad location, you couldn’t see us from anywhere really, there was no advertisement done and it was raining.

Lazy

Some of us had hopped to rent a car and go see some castles, but it was impossible. Ended up spending most of my day online, finally got to upload some things.

Falmouth

Everyone had the day off because some people came to film something on the boat. At the end of the day we found out that it was some documentary where they try and find relatives of people from the past and interview them while talking about some historical event.

In the morning Richard, Baron, John and I went to Pendennis Castle, King Henry VIII built it to protect Cornwall against foreign invasion, Elizabeth I built ramparts and it was even used in WWII as a training facility. We got to the castle a little early so we walked around the perimeter, next to the ramparts, there were lots of people playing with their dogs, so we got to pet a lot of puppies. The Castle was pretty good, we managed to get in free and explore the grounds, most of the things buildings were newer, from the early 1900’s.

Richard went into town before we even looked at the WWI stuff, John and Baron went to the beach and I headed into town as well. I met up with Chris and Tenley at the maritime museum and we explore that together. They had a great exhibition about lighthouses, how they got started, again by King Henry VIII and how people lived in them. Usually it was three men and sometimes they didn’t get along. Lighthouses also had round furniture, round cupboards, round benches and curved beds. There were a lot of boats hanging from the ceiling and as you worked your way up you could see more of them. Down in the basement you could see into the water and watch the tide come in or out.

The main town area is filled with shops, one devoted entirely to olives, a candy shop with fudge milk shakes and the Chain Locker, a bar where news of Nelson’s death first reached England.

Doug took Jesse and I out to dinner to a Nepalese restaurant.

Charts

We were docked before we even got a wake up. It was funny to wake up with everything quiet and still, the engines didn’t wake me up nor hauling up the chain from being anchored last night. I’m almost done correcting charts, I only have two left, after that it’s only weeklys.

Slave

More slaving in the galley, I thought I’d get more of a break with Marcia here.

Anchored

Shortly after the anchor came up this morning the anchor had to go back down because we got something caught on our props. Baron dove to get it off and we were under way shortly after. At capstan, Robin said that Bob, the owner, thinks it might be best if we go back to Europe for next season as well, instead of doing East coast with ASTA.

Tracie

Tracie showed up last night and left before we even got off the dock at 1100, she came to pick up money and give it to Bob so they could pay some bills for us. After we were out awhile and sailing around the Isle of Wight there were some amazing white cliffs, made of chalk called the Needles. Where we ended up anchoring are some amazing cliffs as well.

HMS Victory

Eight of us went to see the HMS Victory today, she was Nelson’s flagship at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. We took 2 buses and a hovercraft ferry to get to Portsmouth to see her; we managed to get into the museums for free because Chris had military ID. The boat was amazing, 5 decks, lots of guns and plenty of signs in English finally.

Tours

A slow tour day, only about 250 people.

Shopping

Yet another work day. I helped out with more chart corrections and Marcia in the galley. After dinner we ran out to the whole sale place again, we’d thought of more stuff to get.

More shopping

This morning Marcia and I went shopping, we ended up at a whole sale place. We got flour, eggs, produce and other random assortment of goods that were needed. In the afternoon I made cake for Don’s birthday, German chocolate and I re-packed all the fish into Ziploc bags. I counted the fish, we have exactly 333 fish in the freezer, that means we probably received about 400, so they were about 8 cents each.

Cowes

We arrived this afternoon in Cowes. I spent most of the day in the great cabin correcting charts, more sailing directions and then things about safety and radio numbers. Some of them I literally had to cut out and paste into the books. Normally you get updates once a week and do them, but since we’ve never done them, we are doing all of them now, it’s kind of fun.