Crookhaven County Cork Republic of Ireland

Heading out past Rabbit Island and into Squince Harbour

We had been thinking about visiting the Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival (Friday 23 to Sunday 25 May), but the forecast was for strong southwesterly winds and rain starting from Friday evening. Baltimore doesn’t have great protection from that direction, so we decided to go to Crookhaven for Thursday night and then, probably, to Schull the next day to sit out the long run of windy and wet weather that had been well forecast to hit over the weekend and into the next week.

The Fastnet Rock ahead

Again, the wind was against us but it was pretty light. The aft heads had been playing up over the previous few days, so I took the opportunity with Blue Velvet being gently heeled on port tack to drain the heads bowl via the winterising drain to check that there wasn’t anything blocking the pipe between the bowl base and the pump mechanism. There wasn’t. So, I again checked the joker valve (perfect), changed the base valve/gasket which was slightly swollen (surprising as it was new in March) and did some work lubricating the pump mechanism. Who knows what the issue was but the heads seemed to be working okay when I had finished.

The Fastnet Rock up close

Meanwhile, up on deck, Nicky had made good progress towards the Fastnet Rock.  By this time the wind had picked up, so we dropped a reef in and carried on southwest.  We got pretty close to the Rock so we snapped some pictures for friends Carol-Anne and Richard, who hope to do the Fastnet Race double-handed this July.

Approaching Crookhaven

Further Horizons’ AIS paint on the plotter

Then we carried on to Crookhaven, which we hadn’t visited before. Amazingly, at anchor at Crookhaven was the only Rustler 57, Further Horizons, which is owned by Ian Robson, a friend of Peter Saxton, the Race Officer for the Island Games sailing event that Nicky organised in 2023.

Sails down and motoring into Crookhaven

Crookhaven lighthouse to our right as we entered the harbour

The entrance is wide and easy, and we took the opportunity to drop our sails before the inlet started to narrow and get cluttered with mooring buoys.

Blue Velvet anchored behind Further Horizons

We anchored just behind Further Horizons and as we finished putting our sail cover on and stowing kit after our sail, Ian came over and offered us drinks on board and then to take us ashore in his dinghy for a meal to save us from having to inflate ours. We gladly accepted and had a lovely evening with him and his crew for the next few weeks, Tim. We had previously seen Further Horizons at the Southampton Boat Show, but it was lovely to be shown around her by her (very proud) owner and to hear first-hand his deliberations during the build to get her exactly how he wanted. She is absolutely beautiful but she is HUGE. As you would expect, she is extremely comfortable at anchor, but it would be interesting to see what she is like at sea. She’s a Rustler so she’s sure to sail well but with such large sails there’s a lot of power there and, with just 2 crew on board, operating her in a blow could be hard work. To make her manageable when lightly crewed there are a lot of power assisted systems to keep on top of and maintain.

The small town of Crookhaven

The most southerly pub in Ireland and the Nottage restaurant to the right

After a delicious meal of Dover Sole at the Nottage restaurant attached to the pub ashore we then repaired back to Further Horizons (via Blue Velvet to pick up some additional supplies) for a cheese board, red wine and coffee. It was a lovely evening and Ian provided lots of useful information about places to visit as we head further north.

Views from Crookhaven looking out over the harbour

The plan for the morning was a 6am alarm call to catch the morning tide to make our way around Mizen Head, Three Castle Head and then Sheep’s Head into Bantry Bay.

Crookhaven, County Cork, Republic of Ireland