Inishbofin, Ireland

Current Location: Inishbofin, Ireland
Current Coordinates: 53° 37' N 10° 12' 32 W
Next Stop: Aran Islands, Ireland
Listening: Crossroads, by Robert Johnson, as performed by Phish 12/29/97
Reading: Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, by Tony Judt

Gitana arrived at Inishbofin Harbor at 9:00 am Friday, July 25th after a 1.5 day sail from Tory Island Ireland. We will only be here overnight as we will be heading south to the Aran Isles tomorrow on our way to Cork. It appears that we will arrive in Cork on Thursday of next week if the weather unfolds as forecasted. I'm very eager to get to Cork!

Tory Island is the smallest, most isolated, habited island in Ireland. We had planned to be there only one day but ended up spending three there because of the same SW winds that have bedeviled us since we left Bodo a month and a half ago. The island has its own king who personally greets each person off of each ship that enters the harbor. Also of note were synchronized swimming partners "Dougie" the dolphin and "Ben" the dog--a yellow lab. Every time Ben sees the dolphin swimming (very conspicuouosly) in the harbor he high tails it to the dock and leaps in and begins to swim around with his fishy friend. It was outrageous, and luckily, I recorded it with my digital camera. I'll put it up on my next post when I get to Cork.

We spent our time in Tory fixing, cleaning, scrubbing, and...well yeh, that's pretty much what we did the whole time, minus a few trips to the pub for a pint. I worked my ass off in Tory Island! I did however manage to get away from the boat for a few moments to take some really amazing photos--one of which cost me my ipod. I was trying to capture the most amazing sunset by walking along an old stone wall that stretched out across a field that towered above sheer cliffs that gave the most amazing panoramic views of the mainland and the sea. Unfortunately, I lost my footing and came hurling down to the ground landing in a bog on my back--completely soaking my backpack and all the contents inside of it. This ruined my ipod (a real bummer--nothing to listen to during my 4 hour watches) and also the power supply cable to my laptop (I am now typing from a computer at an internet cafe that is not mine). I did, luckily (and perhaps most significantly) manage to save my digital camera from submersion, holding it up high in the air as I fell to the ground. I was soaked. I'll find a way to keep posting at cafes like this one during the remaining 3 weeks of the trip, so please do stay tuned.

The passage from Tory Island to Inishbofin was a struggle . Our course required us to sail past some very treacherous rocks as we sailed across Donegal bay towards Inishbofin. Unfortunately, we reached this point during Jack's watch. As I mentioned before, Jack has a problem with numbers, which is a REAL problem when you're trying to steer a very expensive vessel through tight channels. Jack kept falling off course, I kept trying to help him stay on but it became a comedy of errors as it got dark, the winds shifted, and the sails began to luff all at the same time. Skipper was angrier than I have seen him yet. In the midst of another eruption he paused, holding back his fury for one wee moment to tell me that "this is exactly the kind of scenario that {I} need to be in to learn how to be a good sailor." He's right.

Jack gets off in Cork and Mike's nephew Zack gets on. Mike, Zach, and I will then sail from Cork south all the way across Bay of Biscay to La Coruna, Spain. This is 485 miles and will be the longest passage that I've done yet. I'm looking forward to that. I will then most likely be getting off the boat in Portugal (Lisbon) where I'll have to hop on a plane to Rome to connect with my return flight back to the States on August 17.

There's so much more going on that I'm missing but I have to return to the dock and put diesel fuel into the tank. Hooray. A much more in depth post as soon as possible, perhaps Monday or Tuesday. I've gotten a lot out keeping this blog I'll continue to work hard on it with the limited free time that I have.

Stay Tuned!