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Rogerstown 12th August

Yacht Quintet
at Anchor
Rogerstown Inlet
054°30.0N 006°06.0W
County Dublin

12th August, 2005

You can imagine that having left Gogarty's at 2.00 am, this morning was not an early one. I think that we finally dragged ourselves back to consciousness at about 10.00 and, after a visit to the supermarket for fresh bread and milk, had struggled through a light breakfast by noon. After that I insisted on seeing 'down town' Dun Laoghaire in daylight before we left. Actually I felt so rough, not hungover so much as stomach cramps and things, that I wanted to put off going to sea as long as possible.

I went shopping alone. Clive has done shopping for the next twenty years, I think.

Actually you couldn't describe Dun Laoghaire as shopping Mecca. But I enjoyed my stroll through the town and I did find Clive his new face cloth, to replace the one which went into the washing machine two days ago but never came out again.

We finally cashed in our security gate key and slipped our lines at 3.00 in the afternoon and sailed out of the huge and grand Dun Laoghaire Harbour Marina into the grey afternoon of Dublin Bay. It wasn't long before we were under full sail, beam reaching towards Baily light on the Ben of Howth.

Looking back towards Dublin City one could just make out the 'needle' on O'Connell Street, reaching up to the threatening, grey, cloudy sky. The inbound Stenna Ferry roared over the horizon and was passing us in no time.

By 6.00 pm we were round the headland and bearing off past the island of Ireland's Eye, what a lovely name, and considering motoring again as the wind petered away to a mere zephyr. We were obviously not going to make Carlingford Lough tonight, under sail, so rather than motor all night we changed our destination. We headed for Rogerstown inlet, to shoreward of Lambay Island.

Rogerstown Inlet is a bit shallower further out than I had imagined from looking at the chart. We were barely within the arms of the bay before the water ran out. Although we could see a couple of boats anchored much nearer the shore, there was no way we were going to get near to them without borrowing a trailer.

We wandered about a bit trying to find a pool of water further in which would be deep enough for us to stay afloat through the change of tide and eventually located one. But could I get the anchor to hold, could I buggery? It took three hits before we were satisfied that we were secure enough to hold through the forecast force 6. We then hoisted the anchor ball and light and settled down to cook dinner.

Dinner tonight is stir-fried vegetables: capsicum, sugar snap peas, scallions, pak choy with fresh prawns and Chinese noodles. I just hope I can keep it down. The way this boat is rolling at anchor, I might not!

Les Sutcliffe