Castletownsend to Kinsale

We woke to fog again, but by 9 it had burnt off, leaving us in bright sunshine. There was no wind, but we decided to up anchor and head for Kinsale anyway. Almost as soon as we were out of the bay we were back in thick fog.
With no wind and no visibility it was time to put George the tiller pilot on duty, and he performed admirably all day.

Every now and then we would motor into clear patches and be able to see the coast line but most of the morning the visibility was less than 2 cables. It seemed to be clearing as we reached Glandore, so we did not go in, but then the fog came down again. We would never have left port in those conditions, and as far as we could see no other yachts did!

One fishing boat appeared off our starboard bow then vanished astern, several rafts of guillemots with just fledged chicks sat on the water, and we saw low flying flights of gannets, immature and adults together. Just east of Galley Head we saw dolphins, bottle nosed rather than common. One jumped clear out of the water, but mostly we just saw their rounded backs and fins.

By one o'clock we were heading across Clonakilty Bay in bright sunshine, having seen no trace of Galley Head, which remained shrouded in fog. There were yachts visible now, one well out to see and motoring west, and one almost directly on our route. This one was behaving oddly, going round in small cirlces, and we wondered if there was anything wrong so changed course to look. As we approached they straightened up and motored past us, waving happily, then went back to their circling in our wake. We decided they were probably fishing.
Fog hung over Dunworthy Point and Seven Head, so although I caught glimpses of the coastline west of them we could not see the headland. The wind freshened slightly, right on the nose; luckily there was still not much of it as we now had the tide with us and wind over tide can be uncomfortable, especially going round a headland.

cave entrance on the Old Head of Kinsale

Once past Seven Head the wind went back to light again and the fog lifted, Looking back the whole coast line was in bright sunshine, but looking forward to the Old Head of Kinsale revealed nothing but another fog bank. We had got the main sail up before leaving Castletownsend, but put it down as we began to cross Courtmacsherry Bay. The wind was too light to use it, so all we were doing was damaging the sail. It had made us more obvious in the fog, but we were in sunshine again.

Rounding the Old Head of Kinsale

All at once the fog lifted from the Old Head of Kinsale and we got a great view of it as we rounded it quite close to. We could see Kinsale entrance ahead, with a yacht coming out, and then the yacht vanished abruptly behind the thickest fog we had yet met. We got the foghorn out, and began sounding it at two minute intervals while we both peered ahead, trying to make out any boats coming towards us. Twenty minutes of nervous motoring later we were through the fog bank, with bright sunshine and the entrance to Kinsale obvious ahead.

Blackbird

On the way through the bay to the town we saw a lovely lug yawl dinghy, called Blackbird, that reminded us a little of our own sailing dinghy Tiki, and a huge motor yacht. Its accompanying pilot boat asked me to take Robinetta out of the channel to give them the most possible space.

Kinsale Yacht Club marina visitor berths are on the outside of the pontoon, and they looked very full as we motored towards them. I phoned the yacht club, and when the marina manager heard Robinetta was only 7m long he found us a nice sheltered berth, rafted up on a resident boat on the inside of the pontoon.

We tied up in bright sunshine, wondering when we would next encounter the fog.