Greystones Ireland

June 24, 2025

My trip north to Ireland has been nothing but pleasant. After rounding the southwest tip of England I took a relatively short day and anchored near ‘The Rumps’ (Polzeath) but rose early to make a straight run to a bay near Pembroke. With a harsh east wind, I didn’t even stop the boat and rather circled around to a bay near Marloes and anchored for the night again.

These places were both visually beautiful, The Rumps, moreso than Marloes, but still quiet and pretty enough despite the modest protection from wind and waves.

I was expecting two further days to get to my intended destination at Malahide, but in boating terms, it was an eventful day and none of my plans worked out. To begin, the tides in the Irish sea can be significant (worse than the gulf stream) and so I was up at 3am and underway ASAP to catch a rising tide northbound. This was a boon until about 6 am, and as tides do, it turned against me. By early afternoon, it was in my favour again and I decided to extend my reach for the day.

When I departed my anchorage, the air was soup. A thick fog and no wind made for exciting movement. Being so early in the morning, radar spinning and AIS reporting I wasn’t overly worried, but I was keeping a pretty sharp lookout as visibility was limited to a couple hundred feet much of the morning.

I had reached out to Malahide marina by email three times and they had not responded, so I wasn’t sure I would have a place to go. Beginning an alternative plan I reached out to the Arklow marina to see if they had a spot, there was no response via email. I had planned to anchor in Arklow, so that wasn’t a big deal.

By mid afternoon however that current was pushing me along at 9 knots and I figured out that I could make Greystones Marina by 6:30pm. I had surmised by this point that Irish marinas do not rely on email very much and so I changed tactics. When I reached a spot with a cell phone signal I put a call into Greystones Marina and they could take me in indeed.

I ended up arriving by 5:30 as the current never let up. I tied up and started recovering from five days on the water. Hidden behind a huge wall, the marina doesn’t offer much in the way of views, but it is well protected and the town of Greystones is quite nice with a wide variety of facilities (not much by way of boating facilities in excess of the marina itself). The dockmaster commented that I would be the biggest boat in the harbour, but just for one day.

I was a bit curious about the comment, but didn’t ask much, then on Sunday I understood the comment as Mermaid six (Nordhavn 72) showed up and reminded me of my place in the boating world. To be fair, there are at least five people aboard that boat and I believe a couple of them are crew. A whole different experience and a level of work that I don’t aspire to.

My time has been consumed by riding my bike and exploring the nearby areas, doing some boat work and reading as well.

The boat work consists of a few key items:

• First is general clean up, the boat is still a mess from shipping from Antigua to Southampton.
• When my rudder bearing was replaced, the old one was cut off, and despite my offer of towels to cover the decks, that didn’t happen and the associated rust spots are EVERYWHERE. That will take a week or more to clean up and I don’t rush it. They won’t damage the boat, but it is annoying.
• I finally removed my old start batteries on the main engine and put in the tiny new ones that I bought in Southampton. They are just barely sufficient to start the main engine. They do work, so I will keep them for now.
• I developed a leak on my return fuel line on the main engine underway. I slowed it down a lot, but now I need to see if it is just a seal that needs replacing or if I need other parts. Hopefully it is not a significant job to replace those parts.
• My bicycle needs work. The brakes have seized on the Cervelo Aspero, and SRAM parts are hard to get here in Ireland. Service is even harder to get. There are shops, but they are very busy. I will keep it running for now.

Overall, I am starting to feel ‘on top’ of things despite there still being a lot of work to do and a lot of tourism to get into. Soon I will move on to Dublin and see some of that city, as well as rent a car and drive around Ireland to take in some of the sights that I can’t (or won’t) get to by bicycle. It’s a big island and my fitness and age are working against me doing super long rides.

As well it is brutally cold here for late June. Monday night had an overnight low of about 9C and I wasn’t expecting it to be that cold.

That is a lot of information and not a good narrative, more a dump of data, but my readership is down to about five people now that I don’t post these updates on facebook. For those of you who do follow, thanks. I hope you enjoy the stories even when they are just data and not well told narratives.

Other memorable bits:

Farmer’s Market outside of the marina with some interesting things, but one vendor caught my eye, selling leather bound journals with nice paper (recycled cotton) and hand sewn. I bought a journal for 30 Euros, which is a good price. A little too much hardware for my typical taste, but still a great price for rough paper and hand stitched books.

As well, I mentioned the weather was awesome. On day three I saw waves in the 1-2′ range but generally speaking the water conditions were flat as a pancake. I didn’t feel seasick even once and on a five day journey that is pretty good for me.

Finally, I was visited by dolphins a number of times and they always bring a smile to my face. I don’t know why, but they do. This video is unedited, but the dolphins come closer to play by the end. This was the third of four dolphin sightings. The first was the ‘best’ for me. I was cooking in the galley and a mom and baby came up alongside and looked in at me and went away just as quickly.

The path:

Tuesday – June 17th – Southampton to Brixham

Wednesday – June 18th – Fuel in Brixham then onto Mullion, just round Lizard Point

Thursday – June 19th – Mullion to Lundy Bay, near Polzeath

Friday – June 20th – Lundy Bay to Marloes (Near Skokholm Island, past Pembroke)

Saturday – June 21st – Marloes to Greystones, Ireland

In rougher weather, these anchorages may not have been as comfortable. The options are greater than what is obvious on a chart however as long as winds are on the ‘right side’.