Sailing the Irish Sea - final stretch

Sorry for the long gap between posts.  I must try and post something each day or else the habit goes out the window. Worse, remembering what happened takes longer and makes it impossible to catch up!

After the Stack we stopped in at Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, which I've always wanted to go (I still haven't I guess).  Stornoway has a great museum attached to the castle but it is Sunday of course...  There's a display of 5 of the chess pieces, carved by vikings, and found on the islands.  I assume this one is larger than life:

We did go and stretch our legs in the castle gardens:

By the way this is the type of thing Martin cooks us while on voyage:

Because of the region it includes haggis and black pudding.  We tried to dissuade him but not real hard because it was quite nice actually.  Martin can cook like this even healed over 35 degrees and bouncing around.

We see dolphins sometimes, usually they swim up, have a quick look from a distance and race off again, but this time (while I was asleep) they spent some time surfing the bow.  Apparently they didn't stay long, I wonder why they are so shy.

We spent two nights at Oban.  We adopted a pub and listened to an accordion player the first night and a singer guitarist the next.  Classic Fish and Chips one night (with IrnBru to wash it down).  I think there must be regional culinary rules that the chips have to be soggy like that.

The sailing has generally been flat seas and gentle winds after the seas off the north of Scotland - I wonder which I prefer sometimes.  We are often motoring or motor sailing because the wind is less than 10kns. Sometimes we get to fully sail and then the tidal currents can be 2-3 knots against or with us. Things got so comfortable that I started looking at the bird life.  There was a type of bird, probably a Razorbill, from the bird family that includes Puffins.  I noticed they seemed to be in pairs mostly, even when they are in a group.  Apparently the young leave the nest before they can fly and dad looks after them for the few weeks it takes for them to become independent. There was also some sort of shag, but white, diving into the water after schools of fish.

We arrived in Dublin at Dún Laoghaire Harbour not too late and tied up quickly and efficiently. Next to us is a motor vessel "Cape Diem", absolutely covered in moss, algae, and mould.  It probably costs €8000 to berth here for a year.  I don't know how people afford this.

The next day we went into Dublin on the DART (for about €5.30 rtn). The place was packed with Americans who'd come to see the first college football match of the season - held in Dublin for some reason. We went on a walking tour with Dave who told us about early history of Ireland - leading up to the later history, the IRA troubles (basically the only thing I know about Irish history).  It was interesting to find out just how recent the Republic of Ireland really is, how it was independent in various ways before that and how significant the rebellion of Easter 1916 (Foggy Dew, long range guns) was and how the viciousness of the English in putting it down set up Ireland for a century of conflict.  We went for a beer (i.e. a Guinness). David had just one Guinness and sensibly went home.  Martin and I went on to another pub and had about three, then went to find food. I had a chicken kebab that was absolutely DELICIOUS!  I haven't rolled home after that much beer for a very long time (thank goodness I was alright the next day).

The next day we went back to Dublin to walk around and have lunch.  We went to see the Dublin Spire but most other things were closed for Sunday, even tourist things.

We did see an Irish Republican protest march, marching band, banners, "Remember Irish Patriots", "Remember the hunger strikers", "No extradition for Irish heroes".  So there are still tensions simmering beneath the surface...

We left the marina as soon as we got back.  Irish Warship no. 61 called us up to ask a whole bunch of questions and to advise us to stay more than 3km from the Irish coast.

It's a long stretch to Falmouth, I did a midnight to 3am watch.  When I woke for my next watch the guys had found that the engine would not start, possibly the batteries weren't charging well for some reason, and they had turned east to head for Milford Haven to find shelter to diagnose the issue.  There is a high swell, so we were rolling and it was hard to keep the boat on course without Rupert (which would use too much battery). We got in in the afternoon and anchored without the motor and set to work to find the problem. We even used the backup radio battery but it didn't really have the capacity to turn over the engine.  Nothing worked, so we called for a tow into the harbour.  But Martin was convinced that the problem must be something to do with the fix he'd made to the voltmeter earlier. So, as the Harbour Patrol was coming over, we tried looking at that wiring again. He found a couple of connections back there that were disconnected.  It turns out the thick black wire was the glow plugs and that is why the engine wouldn't start.  When connected, even though the battery was a bit low, it managed to start - just as the Harbour patrol arrived! So, back out of the heads and on our way again to Falmouth, another overnight sail.

Here’s a link showing some of the sailing in this section:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0a7jDh7sHzakSBkTOYQyf83ww
Sorry, you need to download it if you don't have an Apple icloud account.  I need to work out a better way to share video...

Arrived Falmouth late afternoon and raced over to the maritime museum before closing.  A very tasty Cornish pasty on the way back to the boat.  We left next morning early at 6am, boating on the south coast is all about timing the tides.  We had a strong wind from the SW the whole way.  It was Force 6, almost 7!  With a following sea it got hairy sometimes as the boat swerved almost sideways.  Martin put away the Yankee and deployed the stay sail and things got more stable.  We arrived at about 11am at  Plymouth marina.  I think we all started to feel tired now that the trip is over and the excitement of being in it is over ☺️.