Inishturk Harbour County Mayo Republic of Ireland

The next morning the wind indicator was operating perfectly as a ‘where you want to go indicator’ so we motored the 8nm to Inishturk in a fairly light northwesterly.

Having picked up a Co Mayo County Council mooring buoy we surveyed our surroundings and agreed that it would have been extremely unpleasant, possibly dangerous, to have been on it the previous day when it was blowing 25-30kts from the south. In a gentle northwesterly it was a lovely place to be.

After a quick lunch we took the dinghy ashore to explore the island, which many people have described as their favourite on this coast.

The site of the Tongs Gatherings beside Loch Coolaknick

The ruined watch tower

We had a wonderful afternoon’s walking. We walked all around the coast and up to the island’s highest point, mostly over just rough terrain, but some was on gravelled tracks.

And we were so lucky as the cloud over the mainland lifted as we reached the top of the island and so we had fabulous views of the hills and mountains of the Connemara National Park and all the way north to Croagh Patrick and across to Achill Island.

The sea glowed bright blue and turquoise and the swell breaking on the cliffs was stunningly white. Absolutely beautiful!

We returned to the inhabited parts of Inishturk via the cliffs, as recommended by the information board but we missed the official path and ended up in a farmer’s field with no obvious way out. Happily, the farmer in question was on his way out for a walk with his dog and so pointed out the way to us and then chatted with us as we all made our way eastwards.

Portdoon

We parted company at a truly tiny harbour on the south coast, where the entrance was a gap in the rocks little wider than our Avon dinghy. There were 2 fishing boats of the local design pulled up on the harbour beach; narrow, about 20ft long with a very distinctive upturned bow (and a 25HP engine on the stern). I can’t say I’d have been keen to bring them in through the ‘harbour entrance’ but, judging from the number of empty in/out moorings, people do so all the time.

View out from the community centre

On our way back to the main harbour we stopped off at the community centre which has a thriving bar and restaurant and fabulous views out towards the mainland. Again, everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming, which makes this such a lovely part of the world to cruise.

And then glorious views and sandy beaches on our walk back to the harbour to pick up our dinghy. We had arrived at Inishturk at 11am and got back on board Blue Velvet just before 5pm; a very successful 6 hour visit but we wanted to press on and make our way to Clare Island.

Inishturk Harbour, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland

Barracladdy Ballynakill Harbour County Galway Republic of Ireland

Having spent an afternoon and an evening off Cleggan, we had always planned that we should continue on Monday 16 June but probably a late start. However, when we awoke, the wind had gone southerly and picked up, and the swell was starting to work its way down to the bottom of the bay. Sitting beam on to it we were rolling rather and it was likely to only get worse so we decided to move sooner rather than later. We had wanted to go to Inishturk and then on to Clare Island on Tuesday but the bay off Garranty Harbour at Inishturk is open to the south, as are the moorings off Clare Island, so we decided to move to the next deep bay to the north, Barrynakill Harbour.

Looking back at the entrance to Barrynakill Harbour with the islands
and fish farm we had worked our way past

It’s only a few miles to Barrynakill and the wind was pretty brisk, so we unrolled most, but not all, of the genoa and made our way around the corner. At the entrance to Barrynakill Harbour, the route in becomes relatively convoluted, with small islands and fish farms to skirt around and rocks to avoid (though new lateral buoys have been installed to help vessels avoid the most dangerous rock, Ship Rock.

We had planned to continue well into the bay for (allegedly) maximum protection from the wind, and from the swell, but as we rounded Ross Point it was clear that, with the wind still in the south, we would definitely NOT have the protected anchorage we were after.

So we scurried back to a beach we had passed closer to the entrance, where the high ground to the south broke the wind and the islands and rocks to the west kept the swell away.

We had a lovely afternoon at anchor, doing various jobs and wishing that the cloudbase were higher so that we could enjoy the view of the hills and mountains to the east, of which we had only tantalising glimpses.

Barracladdy, Ballynakill Harbour, County Galway, Republic of Ireland

Cleggan County Galway Republic of Ireland

Raising the anchor late morning on Sunday 15 June we headed over to say ‘cheerio’ to Cahoots (they were planning on heading to Clare Island). As we were doing so, 3 young men came out in a dory to a small Farr 31 raceboat, which had arrived overnight and which was swinging on one of the large moorings. They kindly asked if we wanted to use the mooring, saying that it belonged to the chap who ran the ferries. We declined as we were just leaving and then one of the men asked, ‘do you remember me from Galway?’ At which point we did – it was Cormack who had helped us with our lines when we had arrived there!  It turned out that he and his mate were sailing the Farr 31 to Westport for the 5-day regatta, starting on Wednesday, that Daria and Alex had mentioned was going on. We wished them well for their racing – I wonder if we’ll see them there.  

Leaving Inishbofin Harbour

Mainsail hoisted, we negotiated the entrance and headed east towards Cleggan.  It wasn’t a long passage but it was rather gentle and very pleasant. 

Cleggan Harbour

Once in Cleggan Harbour, we dropped anchor in about 6m just outside the mooring field, close to the little landing craft ferry on a large mooring to which, interestingly, a red yacht, that had been on the big mooring buoy in Inishbofin when we arrived, was now tied alongside.  Maybe they don’t like anchoring?We took the dinghy ashore to explore, discovering that rarity in Irish ports, recycling facilities but, predictably, no rubbish bins.  Having checked to see if we needed to book a table at Oliver’s (we didn’t) we set out to walk across and around the Cleggan headland. 

Looking towards Omey Island over the sands

On the south side of the headland is Omey Island which is joined to the mainland via a HUGE expanse of sand at low water.  We could see several houses on the island and there’s a causeway across the sand marked, as in Secret Water, by large stakes.  We even saw a couple of vehicles drive down off the island and across the causeway.

Selerna Beach

We returned to Cleggan via the beautiful white sandy Selerna beach that we had sailed past earlier that day. It would be a fabulous place to anchor in the right conditions.

And so to dinner at Oliver’s, which was excellent and a good lead-in to our wedding anniversary.

Cleggan, County Galway, Republic of Ireland

Bofin Harbour Inishbofin County Galway Republic of Ireland (Part 2)

We had always planned to have another day in Inishbofin and had hoped for a reasonably lazy start but the morning forecast on 14 June said that the wind would be turning northwesterly imminently and when I put the ensign up it was clear that imminently was happening NOW. Given that we had no significant space south of us into which to swing (the previous forecasts had given no hint of a northerly quadrant wind) and the beach was starting to look uncomfortably close, we immediately up anchored and looked for another spot. Happily, with the boats swinging we could anchor close to the channel leading to the inner quay and remain clear of the deep water (though the ferry that goes in there is a small, shallow-draught landing craft that could easily manoeuvre around us). The forecast (dare we believe it?!) had the wind backing westerly in the afternoon and then southwesterly in the evening and overnight. Where we were we’d be clear of everything until the evening at the earliest, by which point there’d be no ferry movements until the next day.

During the rest of the morning we did some chores on board adding a one way valve and a higher loop to the shower waste pump output to stop it letting in seawater on port tack. Also, Patrick on Cahoots wanted some advice as to how to solve a leak following a joker valve replacement. Happily, our suggestion to unscrew and lift the pump slightly to ensure the joker valve was properly seated and tight before reattaching the pump solved the problem for him.

East End Beach

Shortly before lunch we went ashore again and this time walked a 6km loop around the east of the island. It has rather different scenery to the west end, still rugged in places but with more pastoral scenery too, and a beautiful, shallow-shelving sandy beach right on the east end with lots of ex-fishermen’s cottages (now converted to holiday cottages) clustered around the curve of the bay.

The cliffs and rocky inlets on the north east coastline of the island

It was a lovely walk and we had tantalising glimpses of the mountains of Connemara but they were rather hazy.

The eastern corner of Inishbofin harbour

Back on Blue Velvet, we had a plot and a scheme about the coming days.  I was keen to visit Inishturk and Clare Island, and we had an invitation from Daria and Alex Blackwell (previous OCC Vice Commodore and Regional Rear Commodore) to use their mooring at Westport. Also, on hearing that we were in Inishbofin, Alan Muir, a Guernsey friend, had sent a message asking if we had eaten at Oliver’s at Cleggan (on the mainland about 6nm from Inishbofin). Having Googled the pub/B&B/restaurant we saw that the food there looked rather good and with our wedding anniversary on Monday we wondered if we should give it a go.

Bofin Harbour, Inishbofin, County Galway, Republic of Ireland  

Bofin Harbour Inishbofin County Galway Republic of Ireland (Part 1)

Departing Clifden with the fish farm and support vessel to the right of the picture where we had
originally hoped to anchor 

We had wondered about staying at Clifden for the day but the wind forecast was so good that we decided to carry on to Inishbofin, which we were keen to visit. There was still a good swell as we left past the protecting islets and rocks off Clifden but nothing like as high as the previous day. With a reef in the main, full staysail and 4 rolls in the genoa we had enough power to beat into the swell but not so much as to be overpowered in the breeze.

Once offshore, it was only a couple of hours of fast, fun sailing, past more rocky islets to Inishbofin. Here, the harbour entrance is renowned as narrow but, following a 90-degree right turn, the protection inside the natural harbour is equally renowned as being excellent.

Approaching Bofin Harbour

There is an original leading line marked by 2 large towers but this goes over a shallow patch (sounding 1.6m). A much newer directional light has been installed showing a line close in to the lighthouse.The light is fairly weak by day, but it is visible. It’s also a very narrow beam; the leading line is just 0.5 degrees wide and the left and right of centre beams are 5 degrees wide but it’s very doable, and much better than going over the shallow patch at a 1m low tide!

Just about to turn 90 degrees right into the harbour and pass the ruined Cromwell’s Fort

Anyway, we made it in safely and then had to find some space in which to anchor.  There are quite a few moorings in the harbour (most empty but a couple with boats on them), some areas are pretty shallow, there are ferries that dock on both the outer pier and the inner quay, so you need to leave space for them to manoeuvre, and there were 2 yachts at anchor too. Nevertheless, we found a space quite close in to the southern rocks which, with the wind forecast to remain in the south and southwest, was perfect.

We had a lazy couple of hours and then inflated the dinghy and went ashore to explore. It’s a lovely island and we ended up doing a 9km walking loop all around the west end of the island.

When we got back to the anchorage we found that Cahoots had arrived having had a good sail from Greatman’s Bay on the outer edges of Galway Bay. We had a sundowners beer with them and heard about their engine which was still smoking but which was working okay, though thy thought it really needs new/cleaned injectors and a new air filter.

Bofin Harbour, Inishbofin, County Galway, Republic of Ireland