Hoy, solo. It’s a good weather window to leave Cork Harbour, Ireland, so off we go. Not too early a start as the ebb isn’t until about 10:00. Motor out through the many boats in the river. Sailing is popular here if the density of the moorings is any indication. It is a pretty prime spot for keeping a boat and the Royal Cork Yacht Club is a nice place to start from. Huge harbour, so plenty of protected waters, and the ocean close by for offshore endeavors. I filled up diesel at the Yacht Club. About 90eurocents/Liter. Quite good. Turned out about 1.45/L in Brest.

I had to motor to get out of the ship traffic area first, and there was hardly any wind to start, but not long after leaving the harbour my sails were set and drawing. SE toward Isles of Scilly, about 135nm.

Sky is clear with some clouds. Cool, about 10C and light winds. Occasionally wing and wing, but sometimes motorsailing. Dolphins came to play!! In fact they came several times. They are smaller than I see in the western Atlantic, and grey with white underside. Nicer looking than the “Brownfish” of the North Sea, as the Dutch call them. Some of these were very playful and were slapping the water and sometimes each other with their tails. They don’t seem as organized at sharing my bow-wake as some I’ve seen, and I couldn’t detect a pattern to their movement, but it’s always good to see them. Sometimes 7 or 8, and sometimes pods of about 20. One pod plays, then another pod joins and the first fades away.

Winds increased to nearly 20 kts, after dark of course. Full mainsail (which is small for this boat), staysail and 70% or less of genoa. Near midnight wind veered NNE to NE and increased to over 20. The waves were big enough to kick off the autopilot so I had to roll up the genoa completely.

Around the Scillys are two TSS, Traffic Separation Schemes, one to south and one on the E. I elected to pass N of the island and pass down on the east side betwixt Isles and TSS. I called Coast Guard to confirm this and they simply acknowledged it was legal according to COLREGS (Collision Regulations). Surprisingly terse. I guess they were busy with the big ships. Luckily there was not much traffic, as it was pitch dark, but at least clear with good visibility.

After the Scillys I turned a little more south toward Ouessant (called Ushant by the Brits), a set of islands just West of Pointe du Kermorvan and Pointe du St Mathieu, on mainland France. Before Ouessant is a huge TSS with busy traffic. It is about 30nm wide so takes roughly 6 hours to cross. There are three major lanes so there is an opportunity to nap in between. Very short naps. My alarm was set anywhere between 4 minutes and 10 minutes. I slept down below to try to avoid hypothermia. It’s chilly out there. It has me dreaming of a pilothouse.

After the TSS it’s best to enter the channel between Ouessant and the mainland from the NW and pass SE from there. Many small islands and shoals, so keeping to the twisting channel is paramount. All this was also in complete darkness, but soon the sun began to rise and I could better appreciate the scene. I couldn’t find a way to contact Douane (Customs) so decided to simply go into the marina in Brest where I could clear in. I was tied up by 0930 and got my Schengen Visa just before lunchtime. She didn’t speak much English so I didn’t get many questions answered, but she was very friendly and it all went smoothly.

260nm Cork to Brest in 48 hrs.

This is claimed the oldest yacht club in the world! Very nice place with friendly people. There is currently a funeral going on in the bar, so it’s packed suit-wearing people, so I’m elsewhere sorting out data. I took on 100L of diesel for 90cents/L. I’m happy with that. It was 1.10GBP/L in Oban, Scotland, though last year it was near 70pence/L in Eyemouth as I recall.

Apparently my “Where’s Goldilocks???” link is not updating. It still shows me in Arklow even though when I log on, the map I get is up to date. They seem to be having trouble with their sharing. I hope they get their website fixed soon, but I will continue send my tracks and hopefully you’ll be able to see them soon.

I plan to depart Cork Harbour tomorrow, Wednesday, and sail to Camaret sur Mer. It is near Brest and just south of the farthest western point of France. It’s where I made landfall in 2015 when sailing from the Azores. I like the anchorage except in strong winds from the north. Very picturesque town. Winds should be mostly from N-NE and sometimes pretty strong, 15-25 kts. That could build up some pretty large waves, but It should be a fine trip, albeit cold at night. Nights are 14 hours long now and temp down to 6C. Brrrr. Especially solo when you can’t take off foulies and climb under the covers. There is a lot of ship traffic and that is the biggest hazard. Constant vigilance!

I sailed overnight from Arklow Marina on the east coast to Cork Harbour on the South coast. About 120nm and it took 22 hours.

Departing Arklow at 1000 14 Oct it was very calm, clear and warm in the sun (with two sweaters), but jumbled waves about 1-2m high so rolly. If I had sailed it would have been very unpleasant. No wind to steady the boat, sails flogging, and no headway. Probably backway as the current was against me until after noon. Hence, I motored. and motored, and motored some more. It didn’t get windy enough to sail until nearly midnight. I had set the mainsail just before dark so I could do it with some light, but sheeted very tight. Finally it picked up I was able to turn off the engine. I set the spinnaker pole to extend the genoa in the dark, then made some nice speed, 5-6 knots. Luckily there was not much traffic and after passing a ferry near the SE tip, nothing close, except a sailboat who kept going back and forth across my stern. Almost equal speeds, but eventually he went south so must have been heading much farther west than me. Pretty cold, but dry and just enough wind to sail nicely.

Just before sunset a few dolphins showed up to play in the bow wake. They didn’t seem as playful nor jump as high as some other places, but they swam with me for 10 minutes or so. About 0200 more dolphins showed up and swam with me for quite awhile. No idea how long as I was napping as much as I could, 10 minutes at a time. There was some mild bioluminescence that made their tracks glow faintly, and when they splashed near the bow the red or green light from my sidelights their spray glowed. It was a beautiful thing to see, but too dark for a picture. Sorry! You’ll have to imagine it.

Carlingford Lough (pronounced: Lock). I hunkered here due some south winds coming through that made sailing southward unlikely. Very open harbour, but as I anchored close to the south shore, it was comfortable enough. Beautiful and green, but not good weather for getting ashore. Just paused a couple nights waiting for fair winds. I seem to do that a lot here up north.

A couple very nice fishermen came by a few times checking me out in the time I was there and about 10 hours before I was going to leave, came alongside and offered me a bowl of crab “toes”! Small, and I’m not sure what kind of crab they are from, but I boiled them for 4 minutes as he said, and they were very tasty (with some melted butter and garlic). A nice addition to the menu as I have not had crab claws for a long time.

A little before sunset I motored out of the Lough and headed south. Nice sailing, running downwind, but it got windier and mistier until it had soaked everything. When you are running it blows any mist or rain into the cockpit and down into the cabin. You have to keep it closed up or the salt spray will dampen and corrode everything. It’s hell on electronics. The temperature dropped and I was getting pretty cold. At night I would go below to sleep about 10 minutes at a time, and try to keep the heat from draining out of my body. I really would like a pilot house! They are not so sexy, but comfort is becoming a priority as I age!

By the morning it was getting rough enough with growing following seas that the autopilot could not handle it and would kick off. I decided to go into the marina in Arklow. Hopefully I won’t be there too long.

As I got close to shore the waves decreased dramatically but since I had already decided to go in, and was cold, wet, tired, and hungry, I went into the marina and tied up at a pontoon in the river.

A foiling, racing Catamaran was placed in front of Goldilocks in the boatyard for some modifications and maintenance.

http://dnaperformancesailing.com/ is the website. It looks gorgeous. Today they launched it. The big task was installing the new main foils, which, as I understand were redesigned. They were a good 4-5m long so the crane picked up the boat (4 tons) while the crew manhandled them into place. A mis-move on the crane operators part and I heard a couple yells and an unnerving “crack”, but it seemed to be OK. It doesn’t look like they’ve done it very many times, but it was not too bad a show. This is the third boat/prototype. Apparently it is bound for a Megayacht in the Caribbean to be a rich-man’s toy, carried on deck. Soon all the megayachts will have to have one!
I was told they got either 27 or 37 knots of boat speed with 14 knots of wind out here on the Markermeer!! Either is pretty impressive.
Very cool looking boat, heavy on the carbon fiber and synthetic rigging. Not a boat I’d like to take across the Atlantic, except the trip would be so short I might not mind the spartan, racing accommodations! Apparently one of these has done a transatlantic already, and it was fast. What a gorgeous and expensive toy!

in Almere, NL

I’ve mainly heard of Eurovision from old Monty Python, so was not very familiar with the concept. It’s a talent (amateur singers) show that’s been around longer than any other I’m aware of. Started in 1956!! Europe only.
We prepared appropriately with a fine meal and two great bottles of wine after a long day of working on Goldilocks in the boatyard. 🙂
Most of it’s a blur, but here are a few pics and thoughts. This year it was held in Ukraine. Russia did not compete. The singer was banned from visiting Ukraine for three years by the country’s security services for touring Crimea in 2015 after it was annexed by Russia. Sad to see it get political.

I got to swim with Dolphins for the first time! I’ve seen them many times playing in my bow wake, but never got a chance to get in the water with them.

I was sitting on deck having a Pizza Pi when a pod of Dolphins swam through the anchorage. Once I realized they weren’t going to leave right away I jumped in with mask and fins. A couple big pizza slices in my belly did not make it easier. There were 8 individuals, 2 young ones and 2 appeared to be yearlings. As a family unit it was more about the babies playing so they didn’t pay much attention to the humans trailing them. Mostly it was me and a woman swimming after them, but later a couple more joined the paparazzi.
I clicked in my snorkel and got a little attention. One turned toward me and got closer, but not for long. It was all I could do to keep up with little breath left for diving down, but I managed it a couple times and they paid more attention when I did. Very fun, but I wish they’d been a little slower.

At Walton on the Naze, moored in Walton Creek.
It is cold and frequently dreary. Some rain, occasionally blue sky. Enough wind to make it feel colder, so we mostly spend time inside. Today, serendipity happened, and I got to rescue a friends’ dinghy and he in turn used his car to get me some Paraffin (Kerosene) for the heater to keep Laylas tootsies warmer. Not warm, just warmer.
Unfortunately the fan meant to circulate the hot air drooped down on it’s mount and melted. That fan has been nothing but trouble and now it’s dead. Good riddance.
The Walton & Frinton Yacht Club has been our sanctuary. Very nice people, great showers, terrific wifi, good price on pints of IPA (Greene King), and a good place to tie the dinghy and walk into town for groceries. We can only access it at +/- 2 hours of High Water, so we get a bit under 4 hours to get everything done, IF we get there on time.
We got our flights sorted out and will get to St Thomas 3 Nov. I’m still nervous about wind to get us back to IJmuiden, Netherlands, but we have two weeks to get everything done, so we should manage it.
First we need to sail back to NL no sooner than 18 Oct, since I have 14 days left on my Schengen visa. I have been told if they discover I’ve over-stayed when I fly out of Amsterdam, they can fine me and restrict my entry in next time. With my boat on the hard in NL, it would be a great inconvenience if they did not let me in the country.  I don’t know what the odds are of that, but the Dutch Immigration seem to be pretty officious, and I don’t want to trust to luck.
We clear in, take the boat to the marina in Lelystad, take the mast out (marina requirement) haul out, winterize the boat, repair what there is time for, and fly out 1 Nov.
If we get good winds for crossing the North Sea about the 18th, it should be no problem, but winds are predominately E and often strong. i.e. over 20 knots.
The North Sea is shallow, about 60 to 140 ft deep, with strong currents and can build up fast and steep. Also heavy shipping traffic. It appears nearly a quarter the distance will be crossing shipping lanes! In general you have to cross them perpendicular, or they can fine you!
It will be cold, and likely wet, and should be 24-28 hours. Let us hope the weather gods are with us!

In the River Blackwater there are not many places to hide from the strengthening winds. N and S are OK, but E and W are very exposed unless your boat can dry out on the mud flats. Also, all the marinas and many protected moorings can only be accessed near High Water.
Bradwell marina, while good protection had no working wifi and no cell signal, so it was a communication wasteland. Not much for grocery access either, so not a place I want to go back to.
…So with the strong winds coming in, Layla and I decided to go to London!

18 Sept, we headed out of Bradwell Marina just after High Water and carried the ebb out of the river very nicely. Unfortunately once you are out of the river, the ebb current runs north, so we were fighting current all the way down. 2 knots SOG (Speed Over Ground) and wind west about 8 knots.

Just south of the River Blackwater is the River Crouch. I had hoped this might be a place we could go into, but it turns out he mud/sand flats extend at least 8nm out from the land. Being the ebb we would have been fighting the current all the way up and no way would we have reached it before dark. Too far off our course.
Instead we simply sailed south until dark and anchored out of the channel, amongst the many bars off the E of England. Disturbing to be in 20ft in the North Sea nearly out of sight of land, but as close to it as we can get. Light winds forecast, so no problem, just a little lumpy.

19 Sept, we woke to find commercial fishing boats dried out on the banks not far away at Low Water.
We sailed on down, and this time with the flood current helping us we made the River Thames just in time to catch the flood all the way up into London!! I had not expected to fall in so well with the tides, so we went in straightaway. I’d always heard about how much ship traffic there is on the Thames, but we had no problems. About a 1-3 knot current helping, but wind was light so we relied on the engine a lot. It is illegal to have sails up when going through the Thames Storm Barrier, so we rolled up before that and motored the rest of the way.

We were stopped by London Port Authority and entreated to keep to the right side of the Thames and warned of heavy commercial traffic ahead. (I was cutting the corners pretty freely, but there was not much traffic.) At least they were friendly and gave us a (relatively useless) brochure.
We had hoped to go to St. Katherine’s Dock which is the “premier” marina next to the Tower of London. Very popular…and expensive. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they were reconstructing docks and had no space. Lime House marina was also full so we ended up reserving a slip at South Dock Marina, just past Greenwich.
The river was very industrial to start, then nearing South Dock Marina, we passed the Greenwich Maritime Museum, which is very impressive.
The marina warned me the current runs very strong and to compensate when entering the lock. Several boats, I was told, had hit the quay when entering. They were full of shit. I did have to compensate for the current but that was no problem. After getting into the tiny lock however (felt like a bathtub) I hit reverse to stop the boat and bring it alongside. Not sure if it was my prop wash or a wave entering the lock, but suddenly and unexpectedly the wash slammed the stern against the wall. Talking later to some other people they all experienced the same thing. I think the lock is so small that it was my prop wash and the act of reversing spun the water around, so wait 20 seconds and it pushes you sideways. Very strange.
We met a nice couple on SV 20/20 Osprey, a British man and American woman that sailed across from USVI about  a month after I did last year. We were anchored in the same cove in USVI, but never met. They skipped Bermuda, and spent 45 days in Azores, whilst I spent only about 30. They loved the Azores too.
Funny thing. I was tied up behind SV Geronimo in Horta. Tony Arrow was the captain and its a school vessel. He was head of rigging on the “Master and Commander” movie. The captains of two of the masts were Ian McIntyre, my old Captain/owner on the Hawaiian Chieftain. The other mast captain on the movie was Andrew Mckee. He was 17 years old and Bosun on the Hawaiian Chieftain when I was engineer in ’98-99 on our winter tour down the coast of California.
Osprey tied up right behind Geronimo when they got there, so they must have been in the same spot I had just vacated. Small world!
Very cool to meet them and lots to chat about.
They are British flagged, so I still have the only Stars and Stripes we’ve seen this summer in NL and UK.
About 43quid/night and a great place to visit London from.

in Dintelmond, NL at the Jachtcentrum (marina)

Woke this morning with a start, adrenaline flowing, fight or flight response to the sound of rapid beating on a boat and a woman yelling “HOI”!!
It turned out a young boy was running down the dock and making the wood slats resound like banging, and “Hoi” is a greeting, like “Hi” or just a shout to get someones attention.
Whew!, no emergency, but not a good way to wake up. 🙂

Yesterday I had breakfast with a Dutch couple, Hans and ….on Isabella, a 39ft Naiad.
They are starting a circumnavigation Sunday! I gave them some extra guides and charts and a little information on the eastern Caribbean. They bought the boat three years ago for this trip and have been preparing ever since. They are naturally excited.

It’s been pretty dreary weather. Rain several times a day and mostly heavy cloud cover. Every once in a while the sun peeks out. Chilly too. Highs of 16-17C.