We were anchored out side Rosslare and it was foggy. The harbour of Rosslare was not that far away and sometimes we could see it while other times it was completely lost in the fog. The coast was 100m away and even that disappeared on a regular basis. The chatter on port control was greatly increased as various boats tried to get in and nobody could see what they were doing. So Port control only allowed one boat to move at a time, with both radar and AIS being used extensively as well as the fog horns. We also had to employ the hand bearing compass as one boat was reported to be on a particular bearing and although, we were a little way down the coast, we were still able to use the bearing to locate the boat, so even though fog horns and a hand bearing compass seam antiquated, they are still used and are still useful.
When we are at anchor, Beverley edits videos, while I do other jobs, so one of the things that I had made while I was in Arklow was a pair of curtains, so while I was in Rosslare, I decided to put them up. I used the poppers that our coffee supporters had bought for us. Curtains are only for cruisers like us. For serious racers, they would never have curtains. We however, are cruisers and for me curtains really epitomises what cruising is all about.
Soon the fog lifted and we were able to leave Rosslare. We had to motor as the wind was bang on our nose, but the weather was due to flip that day so that Rosslare would become untenable as an anchorage. While we were motoring one of my concerns was lack of visibility, but I was being fairly stupid because earlier that day, visibility was in the meter range, while now it was in the kilometre range, but it just goes to show that you can soon become habituated to worrying situations, in this case fog. Even though the situation was a lot better, it was difficult to believe that the bad weather would not return.
As we reached Carnsore Point, the South East corner of Ireland I was hopeful that we would be able to sail as we would be changing direction and the wind would be in the close reach area. Once we turned the corner however, we had that much swell that the wind was not sufficient to keep the sail out. We do have a preventer on board, but that is only really useful for down wind sailing. It was so annoying, but what can you do but carry on which we did.
As there was a large swell on St. Patrick's bridge looked quite dangerous with the swell crashing on the bridge so we decided to go through the Saltee's1 instead. Once we were through the Saltee's we contacted Kilmore Quay, to be told that we would have to stay outside for two hours as we did not have enough water to come in. We have since learned that the entrance to Kilmore Quay is dredged to 1.9m, however the swell height was measuring 2m, so 1/2 of that is 1m, so it would mean that you would only have 0.9m of depth in reality, which is why they needed us to stay out until we had enough depth, to say that I was not happy, is an understatement.
The only good thing was that we were able to sail around, but we kept the engine on in neutral because our apprehension levels were quite high. I can tell you, as soon as we were advised that we could come in, we went in as soon as possible. We were told that we could go on the hammer head. While we were outside Beverley and I had a bet, she said that the hammerhead would be occupied, while I said it would be fine. Well Beverley one the bet, so I had to buy her tea, which was a bag of chips.
The next day, the boat behind us moved, so we had to take Salty Lass back on mooring lines. Kilmore Quay, is a great place to call in at when you reach the South coast as it has a great chandlers and you can also get fuel. Food shopping is expensive, so stock up on food before your arrival.
1. The Saltee's are two little islands to the South of Kilmore Quay
