Horta to Ireland

 

Route from Horta to SW Ireland

We departed from Horta 21st of May. The first 2 days was forecasted to be light to no wind.
We motored to the NW to join a wind system that would come from SW and give us a good push northwards between 10-20 knots. It slowly veered to S, the SE and then E, sometimes ENE and increasing to 25 knots. We tried to keep our course towards SW Ireland, but the wind pushed us towards the west.  

In the morning of 31st of May we were at the latitude abreast SW Ireland, the wind eased off
and we started the engine to motor due east. We had spent quite a lot of diesel already and we had to motor very economically not to run out. We were then 350NM west of Bantry Bay.

We set our sight for Lawrence Cove marina on the island of Bere.
We sent them an email requesting berth and diesel and was granted both.

After 12 hours motoring we finally started to get some wind from the NE which slowly turned N the NW and increased. We could turn of the engine and sailed all the way into Bantry Bay. 

Sailing into Bantry Bay in a pretty sunset.

 

Another one

We arrived in pitch dark at 2AM the 4th of June and we moored at a visitors mooring just outside the marina. The approach to the marina is narrow and shallow and we sailed in the following morning.

Ocean Viking alongside in Lawrence Cove marina.

Bere island is a small community with 200 inhabitans. There was a small shop/cafe and a PUB/Bar with very limited opening times.
We also used the time there to visit the nearest town, Castletown-Bere which was on the mainland 30 minutes by the ferry. The town is the busiest fishery port in Ireland and there were lots of Irish, Spanish, French boats in the port. We spent the night there at a small B&B and enjoyed a good night out.
Next day we did some shopping for our coming voyage up to Scotland. We were horrified for the prices of foods. The economy has certainly gone bad as the result of the war in Ukraine.