The Wild West
Two days tucked up in Dingle was no hardship at all ( at all!) –it gave us a chance to do all the little jobs that inevitably arise ,restock both our food and batteries (real and metaphorical) and best of all ,enjoy the craic. Most of the 200 or so pubs (!) advertise live music so it was a problem to know which would be good and which just tawdry tourist fodder. We chose one ( because of the wifi !) and by chance struck gold –it turned out to be one of only two where musicians and real followers of traditional music would go ,and the evening was great.
The next bit of coast has some 80 miles of Atlantic facing shore with only the Shannon to run in to if things get rough . We have two days or so before the next gale so we left as soon as the wind moderated, which left a pretty rough sea and a fantastically unstable NW wind with big squalls swinging the wind through 60 degrees and varying from 5 to 25 knots. So relaxing it was not ,but we were accompanied by no less than 4 separate families of dolphin and the wind actually came aft of the beam for the last two hours –the first time this trip!
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| From The Wild West |
We are now anchored in Killeany Bay ,Inishboffin ,one of the Aran Isles that protect Galway Bay. This large expanse of protected water would make a wonderful yachting venue ( I think the Volvo race had an inshore regatta here) except there is only one other boat here –a Frenchman. From now on there are any number of bays and creeks to hide in ,although the next low is due to come over the top of us with winds from SE though to NW ,which is always difficult to set up for . We might just go straight to the north of the area where our friends have a sheltered mooring deep in an archipelago –but as ever ,that depends on Mr Grib.
So fair winds wherever you are ,and the Festinas send their love from the beautiful wild west of Ireland.