We had left Greystones and we were sailing. Now when we are sailing Beverley and I chat a lot about all sorts of things and our conversations are clearly evident in this video

• Leaving Greystones – It was very gusty, so what I was doing was waiting until I understood the pattern of the wind, then once I understood that, I waited for a gust, so that I could leave in the calm afterwards. Greystones is a tight little maria and I had to be cautious on our departure, but I managed it so I was happy with that
• Marina costs – Greysones is the most expensive marina that we have stayed in at 55euros a night. On top of that, there was no laundry facilities and the fuel dock was broken. They will be repairing the fuel dock, but while we were there, it was broken.
• Fuel docks and washing – Discussing Greystones, led us on to broken fuel docks and washing facilities, because while we were at Malahide, their fuel dock was broken, so we had to get fuel via a jerry can, but they fixed the fuel dock as we departed. For 55Euros a night, I would like free washing facilities like you get at Belfast marina, I also got free washing at Arklow and Port rush, although they were doing Port rush up at the time.
• Smells – As we sailed down the cost we could smell perfume coming off the land. It was wonderful, it reminded me of when we were in Barra and the smells there were wonderful too.
• Protein bars – I had bought a protein bar, because I realised that I did not have a grab bag, so I bought these protein bars so we could try them out. For us, they were not successful as we needed to drink a lot, so would mean that we would drink all of our water consumption just to eat them. Beverley likened the protein it to dwarf bread.

As we passed Wicklow head, we had to motor as the wind had died to nothing. It was quite calm around Wicklow head which was nice, as that area has a nasty reputation, but that is because it has a lumpy bottom and the Salty Lass rule of thumb is, a lumpy bottom means a lumpy sea.

As we passed the head we were looking at the clouds, with the clouds behind us having a flat bottom and a lumpy top like normal, but the clouds ahead of us having flat tops and lumpy tops. We thought that this cloud pattern indicated a wind shift, so we paid extra attention to the winds. We were right to be aware, because soon the wind shifted to the South East, while initially the winds were from the North West. As we had turned the engine off, Beverley went downstairs to make a log entry. When we change our conditions, be it a sail change or we turn the engine off, we make an entry in our log, so that we know what has happened in our journey.

With the winds from the SE, we continued to sail close hauled right up until we arrived at Arklow. There I took us to the river pontoon and moored us there.