Dun Laoghaire Ireland

View north across Dun Laoghaire Marina

Entrance to Dun Laorghaire Marina from berth AV4

We had arrived in Dun Laoghaire to sort out a couple of technical issues whilst the wind turned northerly and unfavourable for our passage up the Irish Sea, so the priority on the morning of Sunday 31 July was for me to get into the machinery space to see if I could identify the problem with the DuoGen.  Nicky meanwhile, went off to the marina office to pay, find out about the marina laundry and get directions to the nearest supermarket and hardware store. 

The DuoGen’s charge controller which appears to have developed an internal fault 

Whilst Nicky was running our laundry through machines various and buying up (and carrying back) most of the stock of Dun Laoghaire’s huge Tesco, I spent an unhappy morning bent double changing the fuse in the DuoGen’s charge controller (only for the new one to blow) and then tracing the wiring to find the fault.  In the end I concluded that the controller had developed an internal fault, one that I was unlikely to be able to solve in the time available, if at all, so I changed out the fancy, all-singing, all-dancing MPPT  [Ed: all-fuse-blowing] controller for an older model that we still had on board.  Happily, this one still seemed to be working, well, as much as I could tell with relatively little wind to turn the wind-driven generator.  On the plus-side, the internal fuses did not immediately blow when the rectifier was connected up which has to be good!

Crowds out enjoying the Sunday sunshine.  The walk out along East Pier is very popular

I also carried out a little work on the GPS aerial for the AIS in the hope of making the connections more robust again.  It transmitted OK in the marina but the movement back at sea will be the big test as to whether or not I have made a difference.  

The People’s Park

Chores completed we took a stroll out around the city.  I didn’t take as many photos as I had intended but we enjoyed a walk out along the front, past the East Pier, and on towards the People’s Park.  

Railway terminus café in the People’s Park

Like the East Pier, the park was busy with people enjoying the sunshine.  As we strolled back to the marina we commented on the number of yacht clubs.  We passed 3 on our walk (the Royal Irish YC, the Royal St George YC and the National YC) and there is one other a little further west (the Dun Laoghaire Motor YC).

Dun Laorghaire Marina is huge and there is plenty of space for manoeuvring in the pontoon runs

With our jobs complete and the wind forecast to go southwesterly during the next day, our plan was to take on fuel during the morning and then to head off northwards with the aim of catching the tide through the North Channel (between Northern Ireland and Scotland) en route to Gigha.

The view across the marina from our berth

Dun Laoghaire, Ireland