We arrived in Kinsale on Sunday and plan to stay here until Sunday – then head to Cork where Abby will join the boat.

Kinsale is a pretty little town, festooned with tourists! That’s not to detract from the tourists, being in a crowded place is strangely very nice, having been in out of the way places in both Ireland and the Azores. Kinsale is twinned with Newport, RI (Toodle-oo!’s hailing port) and they obviously take the twinning seriously. We went to the White House Inn and duly signed the guest register – a collection of guests that have visited from the Newport area – several by boat. We also enjoyed dinner there last night with the OCC Commodore and his crew!

We’ve been enjoying some Irish music too – most especially at Dolan’s Pub, where the pictured group play on Monday and Tuesdays. What’s neat is that they have various folk throughout the pub sing a song and then accompany them in the choruses – makes for an interesting dynamic.

We’ve been having a great time as we’ve sailed the Azores and now Ireland – but it’s not been without its challenges…

While underway, the constant motion can become irksome. We found this especially true on our passage from the Azores to Ireland where we thankfully had great wind and made great time – but you can have too much of a good thing – and 7 days of constant heeling to port got old! Especially tiring for the Downstairs Skipper, balancing herself and items on the stove…

Laundry is a major hassle and becomes a very high priority when arriving anywhere new. In Ireland it’s been particularly challenging and we’ve ended up doing laundry by hand.

Internet is very hit or miss – more so in Ireland than in the Azores strangely – due to the fact that in the Azores there were many open signals that could be tapped into whereas in Ireland they’re all security coded.

Cooking and keeping the boat clean while wanting to enjoy the surroundings has been particularly challenging for Laurie and we will re-think some of our approaches to life aboard – make better use of restaurants and expensive drop-off Laundromats.

In Ireland we’ve been thwarted sometimes by the weather – as we try not to rent cars but make use of our walking shoes and tandem.

There have been several boat issues along the way – none major, but all needing attention. The generator quit generating, but we fixed that while underway in the Azores – with Mike Eslinger’s assistance. The engine alternator or charging system seems to be on the blink – only charges for an hour or so at reasonable amperage, then dropping to nothing (I need to fix this!). Nearly losing a mast winch would have been catastrophic (at least financially) but somehow when it disassembled itself in the middle of the night and fell to the deck, all pieces managed to somehow stay aboard – making reassembly easy. Our water heater element died in the Azores and we are awaiting Abby’s arrival with a new heater element. She’s also bringing new cap screws for the Genoa’s furler and new tires for our tandem – which are down to the threads!

Drinking in Ireland has been easy with copious amounts of universally good Guinness available on every street corner – in quaint little pubs! Wine is unfortunately expensive in Ireland whereas it was really cheap ($3/bottle) in the Azores…