Aleria's Adventures

The Wests’ Awake four seasons cruise What started out as the Commodore’s bold decision to host the first western cruise in the history of the ICC, became the first cruise to suffer two years of postponement due to Covid 19. Planning cruises in the west depends on the weather cooperating, of course. Not only did the pandemic crush all plans of cruising in company, but also the changing climate has infused a measure of additional unpredictability to any planning for scheduled activities, especially in the West, as hurricanes Ophelia and Lorenzo proved in recent years.  In 2022, the brave Western contingent of the ICC took on the post-pandemic challenge of getting members out to the wild west of Mayo and Galway’s wild Atlantic way once again. The itinerary was set over a two-week period with plenty of layover days planned in to allow for weather delays. There was great enthusiasm expressed by members and up to 15 vessels and some 50 people had expressed interest in joining the two-week me

This past weekend, we finally had a chance to launch Aleria . The weather was calm and sunny on Saturday but we lost several hours when the keel kept getting caught on the straps and we couldn't leave the launch well. Finally, Alex and I lifted the straps and untied the ropes the yard had used to tie the two straps together. It was hard work but we were finally free.  Our first task was to liberate halyards that were stuck at the sheaves at the tops of each mast. We each had to climb a mast. He got the main this time and used the Topclimber. I got the mizzen and was winched up in the bosun's chair. Missions successful.  We shlepped lots of boxes of stuff from the car to the boat and laid out lots of ropes in preparation for raising the sails. The wind, contrary to forecast, was stronger than expected and out of the east. We were facing west at the dock. We tried to turn the boat around so we could hoist the sails into the wind, but the engine kept shutting down. The fuel filter

View from the dock at sunset in Kilrush I asked Alex to organise crew for the delivery. I just didn't feel like pushing through on a delivery trip. Cormac and Louise were co-opted for the trip, although Louise would have to bail out at Inishmore as she has to be at work on Monday. Ciaran Murphy, Michael Murphy's son, asked to join the crew. However, he called Friday that he'd had a car accident and would have to bow out.  They departed Friday evening from our house. It was pouring rain and had been for three days due to post-tropical cyclone Sam dumping buckets of rain on us. The plan was to head out on the high spring tide and anchor at Clare Island, then head out early for Kilronan on Inishmore. Depart Inishmore at 10 am sharp the next day (after dropping Louise off to take the ferry) to catch the incoming tide in the Shannon River at 4 pm. Cormac and Alex would take her from Inishmore to Kilrush. Aleria would be hauled Monday and I would drive down to pick them up.  Nau

We chose Kilrush this year for two reasons: 1) it is close to Shannon Airport and 2) the operation there has become first-class under owner Louis Keating and manager Simon McGibney. It's also reasonably accessible for us by sea in a three-stop hop from Clew Bay. Being close to the airport was important as we have offered Aleria for sale. It's only a 2.5-hour drive for us now with the motorway open and that means we can drive down to show her fairly easily. The OCC discount didn't hurt either. We had a raucous delivery down the coast which I wrote about in a separate entry. Then we kept rescheduling the haulout because the weather conditions were unpredictable and pretty awful -- gale-force winds day after day and changeable forecast hour by hour. Pouring rain and lashing storms. Finally, we had one day -- one day -- when the wind would be less than 20 knots, Simon's cut off for hauling Aleria . We arrived in Kilrush around 11 am and started the final offloading of