Arrival to Ireland - We Made it!

We made our landfall at Kinsale in Southern Ireland two day ago. We had done it, crossed the Atlantic Ocean. We have no bruises, no broken bones and no blown out sails. We are here to tell the story!

11 days and nights it took us to do this last 1200 Nautical Miles.
We had quite a slow passage due to the High pressure which was stretching form the Azores to Britain at the time we left. We had fair winds from South and South West for several days and life was quite a doddle. The engine was on each night to start with as the wind died totally and the sea went calm glassy .

Here is what I wrote in my log book for Wednesday 19th of August 2009:
Ireland is now on the radar 14 miles away! We have had a couple of wild and accelerating days! The weather faxes which David picked up each afternoon on the SSB, gave us the strong impression that we were to have light S-SW winds all the way. But, there was a sting in the tail!
Two nights ago we had left the genoa and full main -sail flying. I had wanted to reef the main before nightfall, but, oh no, that wasn’t necessary, said Skipper. Then, when I was down for my sleep in the evening the wind increased to a constant 20 knots. I was told to get up. Now we had to dress I our oilskins and lifejackets, and David had to go forward on deck and put two reefs in the main, while I held the yacht into wind. Afterwards I felt like saying: ’I told you so’. I said nothing.
Yesterday was a lovely day, sunny and mild. The temperature has generally gone down to around 20 degrees C, and you needed a jumper when in the cockpit. We flew all sails during the day, but took the main down for the night. The wind was on our tail but we were still doing 6 - 7 knots on mizzan and genoa. At 03.00 in the morning the dial on the anometer (wind-reader) showed yet an increase in force. We had heard the Irish forecast , which talked about rainy showers and gusts of up to force 7 (=30 knots of wind). On the radar I saw a ship on the bow three miles away. The night was very dark. I saw that small light from the ship on our bow. I got David up and he took the helm. We took down the mizzan and flew a small reefed genoa. We were still doing 6 knots.
The daybreak came and it was gray and miserable, but we were both quite excited that we had managed the Atlantic so well.
Now, the boat is moving in all directions all the time! It is quite tiresome and we don’t get much sleep. You go and lie down just to chill out from the everlasting movements of the boat, but hardly manage to sleep.

Nobody, and I mean NO-BODY would be able to understand what it is like unless you have done it yourself.

We shall stay in Kinsale for a few days and then make our way back home to Scotland. We expect to get home in 10 -14 days.
1. photo: Church in Angra, Terceira, Azores.
2. photo: a whale (dubble click to enlarge!)
3. photo: Atlantic sunset.
4. photo: flying genoa, stay sail and main.
5. Kinsale marina