This is what sailing is all about. Forget that saying about standing in the rain ripping up £20 notes. We are currently motoring along the Irish East coast in fog. And the engine is not happy either. We suspect that in the crossing to Ireland some gunge in the fuel tank was stirred up and it has now clogged the fuel filter. The result is that every few minutes the engine revs decrease as it is starved of fuel, then it seems to recover again. We are about 15 miles from our destination of Ardglass in Northern Ireland. Fingers crossed the engine holds out until then, otherwise we'll have to try and repair it in the open sea. Luckily, apart from the fog, the conditions are good.
Last night we had a very nice meal at Findlater in Howth, just North of Dublin. This time the steak was up to scratch and the service was good. Not pretentious at all. The marina was more like you'd expect in the Solent and lacked the charm of the last few places we have stayed. But it was good to get a nice shower and do some laundry. This morning we awoke to a blue sky. We left the marina just after 0730 BST and quickly got under way with the cruising chute up. After a couple of hours the wind dropped and our progress was slow so we stuck the engine on. We did have a good couple of sun bathing hours before the fog patches set in. And following the flight of the bumblebees we now have a new hitchhiker. A racing pigeon has been sitting on the mast spreaders for the last few hours. I think he is hoping the fog will clear and we'll sight land soon. I am not sure he has found his sea legs yet. He's probably wishing he'd picked a different boat!
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