Off we Go! Parkmore to Scilly Isles
- vquinlan
- Jun 17, 2019
- 3 min read
Hundreds of hours over the winter to get jobs done on Danu, upgrading of electronics, mechanics, steering gear, cut off davits and build new, upgrade sails to mention a few. There were many lists, some still to complete. But Danu was launched and on June 13th we set sail for the trip of a lifetime - or so we hope!
Lilian and Ruairi help me load up with e800 of shopping, to give you an idea this was 6 trolley fulls. If you don't believe me, check out the faces in the queue!:) The kids did a fantastic job loading it onto the belts while I ran between tills paying and helping with the loading. Many onlookers thought this a hilarious exercise, some did not!
We were supplying basics for 3 months and fresh goods for two weeks. This included 32 tins of tomatoes, 7 boxes of Barrys tea, 10 bottles of sweet chilli, 5 Jars of Branston and marmite. Anyway you get the picture.
We say goodbye to our beloved Ford Focus - she served us well for 15 years.
We overnight Parkmore, Kinvara for June 12th and eat pancakes in the morning until the wind eases and we depart at 1400hrs on the 13th June.
13th June Lilian’s Blog Kinvara to Dingle
We left parkmore at 1400 hours and headed out the bay into the wet and cold. I went below! All mums work people waved from the Marine Institute and she was happy. After we had sailed out the bay a bit we meet some dolphins who were jumping alongside our boat. Ruairi felt a bit sick because of the rough seas. At 10pm I tried to get to sleep but Danu was rocking so much I couldn’t sleep. At 1am I went to try and sleep in the middle of the boat and I finally fell asleep.
Friday 14th – we arrived in Dingle at 8am and had a lovely breakfast; mum and dad slept until 2pm because they were up all night and were really tired. Me and Ruairi played some board games and read books.
After mum and dad woke up me and mum went for a shower. But the water was freezing and the boiler had broken so I didn’t have a shower, mum braved the Icey water. Later, me Dad and Ruairi played soccer in the green area with our brand new football. We made goalposts out of bits of grass. That’s night everybody slept very well.
19th June Dingle to Scilly’s - Vera
After 4 nights in Dingle we get the winds we need and have one long day to Crookhaven. We overnight at Crookhaven and the next day we are ready to make the jump to the Scilly’s. Mum is delighted to hear that the RV Lir (inshore INFOMAR vessel) will wave us off to the Fastnet and beyond, then at Fastnet, the RV Voyager calls us on the VHF as she heads north. A great farewell from the survey vessels.
As we pass the Fastnet Rock - mum takes a gazillion pictures!
21st June Scilly’s - Ruairi's Blog
It takes 27 hours to sail to the scillys (one overnight). We sail over the Labadie bank where Mum says she did a survey a few years ago. We did some fast sailing and mum says we cover 166nm in 27 hours, and that’s a record for Danu! We spend 5 days in the Scillys.
The scilly Islands have crystal clear waters but the water is freezing cold, also some amazing beaches. We anchor off Tresco Island, near hangman’s Rock.
I read ‘Why the Whales Came’ by Michael Morpogo which is set on Samson Island so we go there. It has a great beach, all was going well until we want to go home and the engine breaks down and we have to get rescued!
We got Lilian's SUP board out ans had some great paddles on it.
After 5 days we leave for Falmouth. The sail to Falmouth took 6 hours.
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