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| Flying across Donegal Bay toward Mayo and home |
Flying Across Donegal Bay to Broad Haven Bay
We got up early to make the long trek back home. Some time during the night, the wind had
shifted and we now had quite a swell coming into the harbour. It made getting out of bed pretty easy.
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| Bashing doesn't seem to bother Alex |
Alex was thinking we could make it all the way home to Clew
Bay, but I wasn’t convinced. The sea was much more settled but still messy. And
the wind, which was supposed to go west, went southwest. We managed to sail in
glorious 15-knot breeze and mostly sunny conditions, with passing showers, all
the way across Donegal Bay. It’s the most amazing feeling when you shut off the
engine and the wind takes over in silence. Ahhhhh.
Our original destination was all the way to Clew Bay or a
stop in Portnafrankagh, but the latter would have been untenable in a westerly.
As the wind shifted, veering southerly, we knew we couldn’t make it home, which
of course is due south. We made two
tacks around the Stags and sailed into Broad Haven on the North Mayo coast. Broad Haven is a wide open bay the other side of the Belmullet peninsula from Black Sod Bay. The inner Bay is very shallow and subject to shoaling so it is not really navigable. The outer Bay would be exposed in a northerly but completely sheltered in a southerly.
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| The North Mayo coast |
There was not much there
but a Coast Guard station – house with no roof, a big beach off which we
anchored in a bottom of shell mixed with mud, an RNLI boat, and a small fishing
pier.
We spent a lovely night at anchor once again, with a
beautiful sunset. In the morning, we’d make for the Inishkeas for lunch, and
home after that. If all worked out as
planned, we could make it into our little harbour at Ross on the afternoon tide.
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| Alex's turn at the helm |
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| Flying along |
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| Uh oh, squall, but it's behind us! |
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| The Stags from the west |
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| The Stags from the south |
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| Puffy white clouds are a good sign |
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| The cliffs at the edge of Broad Haven |
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| Another set of Stags inside |
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| Lighthouse at Broad Haven Bay |
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| Spectacular vista |
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| Bye bye, sun! |
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| Ooooh. |
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| Ahhhh. |
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