Eire on a shoestring

Since buying a 1988 Victoria 34 in 2017, we have been refitting her in stages. Having worked our way through the most important issues – standing and running rigging, engine, stern gear and so on – we moved down the list to leak hunting and more minor tasks, which, as any yacht owner knows, is very pleasing.

We also ordered a new suit of sails and were ready to sail quite early in the season. Unfortunately, pressing family issues and the weather pushed back our departure date so it was gone mid-August before we sailed.

With a reasonable forecast, we sailed from Conwy to continue cruising the east Irish coast. Previously we had visited Glenarm, Bangor, Ardglass, Howth and Dun Laoghaire, and we liked them all, but if we had to pick one favourite it would be Dun Laoghaire. Once across the Irish Sea we hoped to go south beyond Dun Laoghaire and see where the wind took us. We decided not to sail