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