The Clogher Head Cruise - June 2009
Fresh from our Yachtmaster Coastal theory course, Jo, Nicola, Juliane and I went on a weekend's cruise on Obsession to practice our navigation, under Simon's watchful eye (well, it was watchful when he was awake!).
We departed on a Friday evening and sailed through the night, using a 3 hours on, 3 hours off watch system. We sailed half-way to the Isle of Man before heading for the fishing harbour of Clogher Head. Night sailing was a great experience, and it was good to try navigating and plotting our position without GPS, out of sight of land.
Once back in sight of land we plotted our position more accurately using 3 point fixes. During our theory course we had learned about the different lights that different types of shipping use and this was very useful when determining if ships were heading towards or away from us and if they were fishing or trawling.
We arrived in Clogher Head on Saturday morning, tied up to a harbour wall on a rising tide, had breakfast and a well deserved snooze, then departed for Skerries, where we took up a mooring, made dinner and relaxed for the evening.
On Sunday morning we sailed south in a force 5-6, heading into the wind and tide, with the need for a few sail changes and some reefing. We sailed past Lambay Island (which has loads of lobster pots in the way!) and then anchored in the lee of Ireland's Eye for some shelter and to make lunch, then we made our way home to Dun Laoghaire.
T'was a great cruise and many thanks to Simon for sharing his experience and giving us to chance to practice navigating, helming, sail changes, reefing, man overboard, tying up to a harbour, mooring, anchoring and sailing in forces 1-6.
- David
