After Crookhaven

What happens after Crookhaven stays after Crookhaven.

0600 on the 3^rd day of July 2016 in the harbour of Crookhaven, Republic of Ireland in the County of Cork. I awoke. Notice I said I as the rest of the crew just rolled over and muttered no yet. So being a very good skipper I didn’t do what I wanted to do which consisted of an inch and a half fire hose. But instead I got up and put the kettle on and made tea for us all.

0715 we finally got underway on a flat oily sea so it was a boat ride at 2,000 RPM. We motored out to and around Mizzen Head and over the overfalls. Overfalls for you who don’t know are what happens when the tide runs over an uneven bottom and piles up the sea so that it disturbs the surface of 1 degree or another. Ie not much or OOOHHHHH poop!!!! Why did we come through here. We had ½ the ooohhhhhh stage. Then an easy ride up to the entrance to CastletownBearhaven dodging Dolphins rehearsing for the dolphin Olympics. Once into the Bay we decided to keep on going East to Lawrence Cove Marina on Bearhaven Island. Just in case you were skeptical about Bears in Ireland especially on an Island? Your right. As we were steaming down the bay I spied a Mast sticking up out of the water! Being a trained observer I immediately deducted that there was a sunken boat underneath it. I was right! The tide was falling so as we got closer it (the wreck) became bigger as the water level lowered. Turns out it was an old freighter brought in to bay to be broken up. A mysterious fire broke out and it was dragged down to where it sunk. It is now a home for fallen fishes lobsters crabs and other inhabitants. We passed along and eventually arrived at Lawrence Cove. We wended our way in through the shallows and past the curious cows and not so curious sheep until we arrive on the visitors pontoon at 1130 AM. We made ourselves secure.

I then sent the crew off on a mission to find a left handed right sided deep dish adjustable box wrench. When they were gone I swamped out the boat cleaned the head and generally tidied up. *** We all then went for a walk about to find a Neolithic tomb. We succeeded and then walked down a field road until we came to a gate. The crew opened it and went through so I had to follow and off we went down to the sea and we walked along the shore line back to another road and made our way back to a nicely cleaned boat. The weather was grand.

*** Crews notes: Cut the skippers hair and sent him for an overdue shower…We then the crew of two, swepped and tidied, removed the forepeak mattress’s for airing and the sheets for washing… 13Euros/load and Dianne and I did three loads while skipper played with water filling the tanks following his shower. We went Dolman searching on our walk and got back to the 2 dry loads and the 3^rd was finished before the evenings crib game. We ate late so none of us slept really well despite the marathon of boat work and long walk. Skipper was told to mind his own tools.