June 30, 2025
I moved from Greystones to Dun Laoghaire on Saturday and it was just a 12 nm run, and with the current pushing me along at about 7+ knots it was pretty easy to do. The winds on my arrival were pushing me off the dock and without a working stern thruster, docking was a bit of a challenge, but the help of a dock hand and I tied up just fine.
There are a lot of moving pieces in my world right now, but I am set to spend some time cleaning and organizing boat stuff for a few days then drive around Ireland taking in some sights and enjoying the land around me,
Yesterday I was able to get in a 100km bike ride for a change. The first ride of that length since late May in Southampton. The climbing here is a bit more significant, and my brakes being ‘locked on’ makes covering the distance very hard work, but still what a great way to see a country.
Since I don’t know the area at all, I used google maps and asked for a cycling route, so it gave me every tiny, twisted cycling path to get out of town, and I gave up on that after 30km realizing that I would have been far better off to take a main road 18km out of town. The ride back was faster, but since time was not the goal, distance was, it really didn’t matter. The downside of bike paths (and bad brakes) is a very slow average speed of just 22kph. Ugh.
In any case, I rode out to the countryside and saw the Wicklow Mountains from the North side before returning home. The biggest surprise on the day was a little fawn that was beside the roadway and almost leapt right into my wheel. Momma was on the other side of the fence and was trying to get her fawn back to the right side of the fence, and I think I scared the poop out of that little fawn, so perhaps I helped the Mom.
I have been lucky to run into a few Nordhavns along the way to remind me of future possibilities. In Greystones I posted about Mermaid 6, and now I am in a marina with Wombat, a Nordhavn 76. I look like a dinghy. See these two photos below? That’s my massive boat. Again, one of the largest in the harbour.
And then, they put me beside Wombat. I am definitely the little guy again. I will say, as I take a break from cleaning, that I am very, very happy I don’t have to clean Wombat.
Finally, my world is comprised of cleaning. I am expecting guests to visit the boat next week for a tour and my boat is still covered in the remnants of an ocean crossing on the deck of a freighter. There are black streaks everywhere, rust spots and various other markers. I am not sure I can get it all cleaned up, but I can certainly work on it. I started this morning with a bunch of stainless steel polishing and removing rust spots (both from the transit, but also the cutting out of the upper bearing on my rudder shaft, that left a LOT of metal filings on deck and those just turn to rust when they first meet salt water).
That’s it. It’s mid afternoon and I am getting back to cleaning. Next update will likely be when I am back from driving around this little island of green with some updates on what I get to see.