Aleria's Adventures

Stone arch at the end of Gola Getting Closer to God The harbour We woke to a beautiful crisp morning with sunshine and puffy white clouds. We decided to go ashore for a morning exploratory visit. We stopped at the café/tourist information hut on the far side of town and saw photos of inhabitants from around the 1930s before the island was deserted in the 1960s.  This was a special exhibit for the weekend festival.  Decendants are now coming back and restoring the old homesteads.  Very interesting. Marie, the proprietor of the café, told us all about the people, the history and the current happenings.  They’ve laid on water and electricity and built two new piers. Yet, they are having difficulty with conservationists who want everything preserved to protect sensitive species.  The islanders are being forced into making all kinds of concessions to be permitted to restore their ancestral homes.

Fog in Donegal and PRMMMC*  *(personal remote maritime mobile mechanical consultation) Glen Head just as fog rolled in and the engine alarm went off. Today was to be the day of diminishing winds. We got up early and motored out of Killala, set our sails and sailed across Donegal Bay keeping a watch out for fishing vessels out of Killybegs. We now have an aversion for fishing trawlers, as could be expected. Unfortunately, none of those we saw had AIS.  Just as we rounded the northwesternmost tip of Ireland where weather always seems to make headlines, the wind died. Big swell was still crashing on the rocky headland.  So we fired up the engine and started motor sailing toward Arranmore about 6 miles away.  Within minutes, the overheating alarm came on the engine.  We had seen that a couple of days ago, so Alex had then topped up the antifreeze and it had stopped.  Now, it was on again and alarming.  We had to shut down the engine. With the wind dying, our only choices were