We had very little South, as the wind had already shifted to the East by the time we reached the sea, so once again the wind was pretty much on the nose. we decided to motor sail much of the way as I wanted to get to Alrklow before dark, as the entrance is pretty narrow. Additionally, it is renowned for being difficult if not impossible in a strong North Easterly. We were gambling on the wind not picking up too much before we wanted to enter harbour.
We had the engine off for a few periods of an hour or so, but had to push it when going between the Saltee Islands as the tide rips there and was against us.
After passing the Saltees, we went outside Black rock, which was sticking about ten feet above the waves, but inside The Barrels. I didn't realise how close we were until we saw some slightly breaking waves, and rocks sticking out no more than three feet about 100 metres to starboard. The Fairway buoy is another half mile to seaward. Nowhere near the rocks themselves, which are un marked. Than goodness for chartplotters.
Shortly afterwards we had the highlight of the day when Gail spotted a black fin carving through the water less than 100m away. Having studied the chart in Waterford Marina office, I was able to recognise it as a Killer Whale Fin, further confirmed when we saw it leap out of the water a couple of times, this time some distance away, but very large and black. We then saw a couple of smaller fins, which I think were some sort of Dolphin. I reckon it was a female Killer Whale we saw as the fin was the right shape but not quite as big as the male.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, apart from another first. Pot Noodles for lunch. Actually, they were quite good. Chilly Con Carne around 6pm before arriving at Arklow for 19.30. Glad we were advised to tie up at the outside pontoon, as the marina is unbelievably tight. We would have struggled to get in.
Glad the pot noodles weren't given to the whale
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