We arrived in Kinsale on Monday evening, and, after three nights alongside at the yacht club marina we departed into a choppy sea to continue westwards.
Kinsale was very pleasant. We were extremely well looked after by Kinsale Yacht Club and particularly by their bosun Kieron. He was on the pontoon as we arrived, drove us to the petrol station to replenish our jerry cans with diesel, he was always available with good local advice and was on the pontoon again to see us off at 0800 on Thursday morning; a great asset to the club and Kinsale.
Kinsale is very clearly on the tourist route and popular for those who can afford second homes. It has a mixture of local stores and bars and upmarket fashion and arty shops – reminiscent of Cowes or Lymington. Around the Solent some refer to the wealthy outsiders as DFL’s (Down From London), the equivalent here is apparently the D4’s – D4 being the postcode for the poshest part of Dublin! The Old Head of Kinsale Links, just a few miles from the town is also an attraction to the area for those with deep pockets – we were told by a bar-man who had caddied the course that Tiger Woods’ comment on arrival at one of the holes was “Oh My F***** God” – the hole is 300’ up on the cliffs and apperently unplayable by those who suffer from vertigo!
We looked up at the Old Head as we bashed out through the confused sea that had developed over a few days of storms on top of the residual swell. After three hours motor – sailing south we then tacked around towards the west to take advantage of the south-westerly breeze; although the sea state was tiring I was pleased that the Stugeron sea sickness tablets seemed to be working and by mid afternoon we were off the Glandore estuary.
Glandore is, according to the almanacs, a safe and sheltered harbour although it has no berthing facilities for yachts, just fishing boats. I had made a few phone calls the previous day and ended up chatting to Dermot who assured me that we could use his ‘red buoy, just under the church’. We found the buoy and secured although it seemed fairly lightweight for a boats of our size; we were surrounded by smaller racing keelboats – Squibs and Dragons. After a cup of tea we felt that we could leave and get ashore so out came Terry the Tender (first time since Tresco in the Isles of Scilly) and after lots of pumping we motored ashore for a walk and drink. We sat outside the Glandore Inn, had a pint of Murphys and some chips whilst keeping an eye on Little Scarlet on her mooring below. The peace and beauty of the place was only slightly disrupted by a rather loud group who chatted about living on a boat in Canary Wharf and how all their families were ‘regular free divers in the Maldives’. Stereotyping warning but they showed all the signs of being ‘blue blooded’ English who had probably been expensively educated, had a sense of entitlement and probably lived in a rather large house nearby!
Despite phone calls I was unable to encourage Dermot to come and collect a charge for our mooring so after a meal on board and a rather rolly night, we recovered the dinghy and headed off early on Friday morning, again to head west – this time aiming for Baltimore, a large natural harbour 15 miles or so along the coast.
Friday morning’s voyage was again bumpy but again the Stugeron did the trick and we arrived into the rather imposing entrance to Baltimore, with the large white beacon – Lot’s Wife – towering over our starboard side.
The almanacs and pilot books suggested that a pontoon and alongside berth might be available but there was nothing evident as we arrived, just a busy harbour wall with fishing boats unloading and some small inter-island ferries, but nothing for yachts. There were however, numerous mooring buoys, some vacant and some with yachts moored but nothing obvious for visitors. Nigel then made a series of phone calls – initially to the harbour master and then to a succession of other numbers. The sum of the conversations was that the harbour master was off for a few months (there had apparently been an accident involving a cow!) and we were free to select a mooring. So as I write this we are swinging around a good quality mooring buoy in a very beautiful and sheltered harbour. There is no sign of any other visiting yachts (we are clearly at the very beginning of the season here) and the other yachts near us seem to be permanently based here. We have the tender ready to get ashore but it’s pretty breezy and quite a hike to the pier so we are having a quiet few hours on board, hoping the wind will ease and we can nip ashore this evening.
