Eire on a shoestring

The Irish sea deserves respect, but the rewards of a summer cruise can be great, as Don Smith notes

- Don Smith

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 via Holyhead, so first stop was Douglas. We sailed most of the way on a broad reach under headsails alone as it was quite lively, with a quartering sea, and we still made a good speed.

Man alive

In the Isle of Man, August bank holiday means classic motorbikes – deep vibrato everywhere. The marina was quite full; we had a delicate job getting onto our echelon berth well up the north side, and getting off had its own problems.