Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Dingle to Arran Islands

Wed. July 13/16.
0500! Blacker than. Put the kettle on. Crew all pretending to be sleeping! I know better. But decided to be nice to them. Got the weather forcast and decided we would leave. Kettle boiled made the tea roused out the crew and we were underway at 0600 with the tide. Leaving the harbour we were wished a bon Voyage by Fungi. No one had a camera ready so no pictures. We motored up the coast to Blasket Sound and then had a wind against tide situation going through the sound that wrecked 3 Spanish galleons from the Armada trying to come through from the other direction at night in a Gale. Surprisingly 3 others made it! A very Nasty ride for an hour of ups and swooshes down and rolls to Port and rolls to Starboard with wallows and wabbles etc etc. Sally not happy at all! It turned out to be a nasty 13 hour upwind slog with a diesel leak that made Sally Ill. Most of it motor sailing. Mark was a big help and seemed to be enjoying it. We saw whole flocks of playfull dolphins on the way but again no pictures. Wouldn’t you think that a guy with a big camera would be itchin and all ways ready for that perfect shot? Well he wasn’t.
We arrived at Inishmore the biggest of the Arran Islands and took a visitors mooring ball managed to catch it after two tries. We’re getting better. Sally somewhat better so she made us grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for dinner. Best Sandwiches and soup ever! Went to bed.
Bastille Day. Oh what a night. Can’t remember the rest but now it’s stuck in your heads heehee!~ And a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Drum Roll, flourish of trumpets, clash of cymbals Sally!! Who being woken up at 0700 by the above was not her usual happy camper self. So I’m off to a grand start to the day. I did make the tea and was somewhat forgiven. Mark and I then put the dink into the water and the engine (a1973 Johson 9.9 2 stroke outboard) onto the dink. I then gingerly inserted myself in to said dingy wait a minute it isn’t dingy, dingy is dirty and dark and not very nice but bears behind is a bright greyish silver colour .  Bears behind is not named after my butt! I attached the fuel line from the fuel tank to the engine closed the choke ( a thingy that closes the top of a carburetor(another thingy that came before injectors to mix fuel and air before the mixture is directed to the engine cylinders)). Where was I? Everything connected, check. Hey you know what? No check mark on a computer keyboard. So everything is connected, I then open the vent on the gas can which isn’t a can because it’s plastic Red plastic to differentiate it from a diesel container which is yellow or a water container that is blue or white. I then turn the engine grip to the start position have a last look around for loose objects children dogs and even cats close my eyes, stick my tongue out at the proper angle (Every outboard engine in the world bar none needs the proper tongue angle and you all know that right?) Hey I just noticed that I spelt differentiate correctly and spell check didn’t interrupt me. OK Ok all the checks are done I gently pull on the starting cord (rope that is wound around the top of an outboard engine and pulled to spin the engine around to start it). It starts right up runs and stops. I’m used to this, seems a lot of the stuff I start stops. 2nd pull with the choke open and it’s running well not really running cause that needs legs either two or four unless you’re a centipede or something. The crew then piles into the dink and we’re off to shore.

A short time later we arrive at the pier find a place to ty off clamber out undress walk along said pier and the first,numeral

1 Hackney driver to approach is hired by???? Actually not a hackney well maybe it is but a Pony .Cart. And we’re off to Dun Aengus





No comments:

Post a Comment