Some fairly random thoughts on Dingle, and our passage to and from here and 40 years on from the Falklands War.
Dingle
Very picturesque – even in the rain! Colourful streets with mountains rising
up behind.
Americans! There are lots. Older Americans pouring off coaches (from Killarney) and staying hotels. ‘College Kid’ Americans from Connecticut on an exchange programme with the local college.
As we were told by PJ, a young bar man and barber who had played Gaelic football ‘professionally’ in London and the US, Dingle is “fish and Americans!”
But I would stress that the tourists were very much welcomed by the locals, especially after the COVID hard times.
Sailing to and from Dingle
We were reminded on our bumpy 12 hour voyage from Bantry
Bay to Dingle that there are very significant distances between safe ports along this coast ... This
‘hop’ between safe harbours was, with respect to time, the equivalent crossing the English Channel from
Portsmouth to Cherbourg.
Little Scarlet is a relatively heavy yacht and she felt pretty steady and comfortable in the nasty ‘confused’ seas that we experienced off the cliffs and headlands of west Cork!
Looking ahead – we are keen to gain more progress to the North so with an improving forecast tomorrow (Thursday) we shall probably head around the end of the Dingle peninsular, through the Blasket Islands and up to Fenit where there is another marina. After a night there we shall probably aim for the Arran Islands and then Galway.
Falklands War - 40 years on...
Nigel’s reflection –
Yesterdays’ bouncy passage from Bere Island to Dingle was not quite as bouncy as the conditions that HMS
NORTHELLA was encountering in the South Atlantic 40 years ago ..see picture! That said, a factory
fishing trawler designed to fish off Iceland is perhaps better prepared for such weather conditions!
