Aleria's Adventures

Sailing around the cliffs of Achill Remote and Wild  by Daria Blackwell s/v  Aleria Co-author of  Happy Hooking The Art of Anchoring . We emerged from the shelter of the inner islands only to find a furious chop in the bay. It was supposed to be fairly benign conditions today, but the wind was howling in from the West whipping up the seas against the outgoing tide.  There was a huge swell coming in from the Atlantic, which we had expected behind the retreating gale from the day before, but we had not expected this maelstrom given the  Met Eireann  forecast early this morning. But that's the west coast of Ireland. Unpredictable. Majestic. And many days formidable.

Poor little yacht stranded on a falling tide Kedging for your life While out on one of the islands ready to enjoy a picnic on a beautiful day, we came upon a sailboat hard aground with the tide still running out. Our friend Philip, casually said, "Hey, there's a sailboat aground." We all ran to peer over the dunes to see what we could see. Indeed there was a lovely little boat hard aground on the rocky shore. And the tide was only about 3/4 out. Our hearts dropped as we imagined the circumstances. This is one of the possibilities all sailors dread. Questions popped into all our minds unspoken, "I wonder if there is anyone on board and if they are okay?" Philip discussing strategy with the skipper. 

What age are you inside? Selfie taken on June 29, 2014 in my Ukrainian Tryzub cap.  This past weekend, Aleria stayed calmly on her mooring while her crew pursued shore side pursuits. Specifically, we bought two-day tickets to the Westport Festival of Music and Food.  Westport happens to be on Clew Bay along the Wild Atlantic Way so I feel justified in spending time writing about my home town. Alex grew up here but I'm a recent transplant. Every day I feel fortunate to be allowed to live in such a beautiful and welcoming place. I look out the window on the water and gaze toward Croagh Patrick and thank the Lord for my good fortune.

Islands with a checkered history The Inishkea Islands (Goose Islands, Irish: Inis Gé)  are situated off the Mullet peninsula in Erris, which was recently voted as the best place to go wild in Ireland. We wholeheartedly concur. It was our first visit of many more already planned. The Inishkeas were abandoned in the 1930s along with many other islands on this inhospitable coast. They are slowly returning to their wild state. Having gone ashore and felt the spirituality of this place, I am certain its residents over the millenia were one with the sea as we, too, hoped to experience. There are two main islands - Inishkea North and Inishkea South. A small third island called Rusheen lies just off the main village on Inishkea South, and several smaller islets trail from its tail.  The islands are just off the mainland coast along the Wild Atlantic Way and offer some protection to the Mullet from the power of the wild Atlantic waters. They are now home to a large number of bird sp

Crowded anchorage at Clare Island Saved by luck and a bit of ingenuity What do you do when you've just raised anchor, you engage the engine to head out, and the wheel just spins freely in your hands without turning the boat?  PANIC! No. Do not panic. Think, and fast. We've lost steering twice before, both times in the middle of an ocean where there is nothing to run into and where  Aleria steers herself very nicely with sail trim alone.  Out there, there is plenty of room to think things through and work on the problem to resolve it. Not this time. No, this time, the wind grabbed the bow and swung us around toward shore. Not just a sandy shore but a rocky promontory.  We reversed the engine but that caused us to head out to sea. What we needed to do was get back into the harbour where we could re-anchor. The dinghy was on deck and there was no time to launch it.  We had to find a way to steer.

Fixing the Raymarine BOAT: Break Out Another Thousand is Alex's theory of boat ownership. My theory is that Alex is conservative. The truth is that the BOAT theory is directly proportional to the size of the vessel multiplied by the number of gadgets it can fit.  Naturally, a bigger boat can hold more gadgets. In addition, everything is bigger and heavier and, therefore, costlier.   Aleria is 57 feet LOA.

To Clare Island and into the Wild Atlantic Waters The race action around Clare Island on the Sunday of the June bank holiday weekend had all the intrigue of a world class sailing race. Wind out of the SE holding steady at 20 knots at the start but gusting over 40 knots on the North side of the island. Fog, mist, rain.  An MOB (man overboard) successfully recovered in textbook style within about 3 minutes attesting to the fine seamanship of the skipper and crew. Gear failure. Seasickness. The makings of many stories.  Two boats retired.  Six over the finish line with the faces of experience on board. Awards won by sailors sporting broad smiles knowing they had lived up to the challenges.  Characters from every walk of life, both young and old, had set their sails against one another for the prestige of winning the Kay O’Grady Memorial Trophy.