Dingle to Fenit (where?!) 29 May 2023

 


Today we have said goodbye to Dingle after a brilliant visit.  Dingle is vibrant, busy, pretty well off, well kept, lovely.  There are really good shops, grocery, hardware, clothes, craft, and all just a little up market, not tacky (except that pub).  Strangely, the marina fees  are nearly half what we have been paying everywhere else. 

Before we left we arranged to get fuel - this was our first experience of having to pull over to a commercial pier and get refilled by a tanker lorry.  It all went well, and we paid the cheapest of anywhere else so far (£1.30/ltr).

McSweenEy Oils delivering fuel to Lazaway

We left Dingle at 11.00ish and it wasn’t long before came to the end of the Dingle peninsula and the Blasket Islands - home of the famous Peig Sayers.  The run along the south of the peninsula was glorious - calm and sunny.  The scenery fabulous.

The Blasket Islands.  Far left is Inishvickillane, then Inishnabro, and then the main island,
Great Blasket.  The tip of the Dingle peninsula, Dunmore Head, can just be seem on the right.

The old settlement on Great Blasket.

Farmland on Dunmore Head

From here on the world changed dramatically.  We rounded Dunmore Head and went straight into a very lumpy sea from the northeast and big swells from the northwest and a stiff breeze from the northeast.  Moving round the boat became difficult and if you weren’t very careful, dangerous. The north coast of the Dingle peninsula is a long series of very dramatic cliffs and rock formations which we stayed well out from in the hope that it would be a little less rough.  Dreamers!

After nearly 3 hours we were approaching Fenit, in calm waters with a relatively gentle following breeze, when we were joined by three Bottle-nosed Dolphins.  What a delight!



A Bottle-nosed Dolphin escort into Fenit

Who has ever heard of Fenit?!  Well, shame on you.  

We hadn’t heard of Fenit either.  But we should have.  It’s lovely.  Really holiday-ish, but just for locals - no Americans or other non-Irish citizens (that we came across).  It hasn’t got much but has got a couple of beaches, one of which succeeded in enticing Susie and Mary in for a swim. Remarkable.  


It also is the location for a port focused on the export of container cranes manufactured by Liebherr’s Irish subsidiary, based in Killarney, which are shipped all over the world.  As we sit in the marina there is a large United Heavy Lift ship, the UHL Frontier, in the dock, being loaded with huge crane parts.


And there’s more.  Fenit is the birth place of Brendan the Navigator - born in AD 484.  St Brendan of Kerry was born in Fenit,  at the western edge of the known world.  He was a sailor, monk, missionary and explorer.  He founded a federation of monasteries in Ireland and abroad but is most famous for his seafaring adventures, collectively known as the Voyage of Saint Brendan.  In fact and in legend Brendan was one of the greatest early medieval Irish Saints.  His tales, their symbolism and imagination inspired many to seek the Promised Land to the west, most famously Christopher Columbus.  St Brendan, whose feast day is celebrated on 16 May, is patron saint of Kerry, mariners, travellers and the US Navy.

Brendan the Navigator 

Today’s boat bird list has 27 species.

Our route 


























































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