Peel to Dun Laoghaire 18 May 2023

 

Replica Viking longboats at the inside end of the harbour 

Up at 07.30 to a quiet still harbour - song thrush and chaffinch singing, black guillemots busy living their lives between and among the boats and harbour walls, and eiders and mallards gracing the water surface. Lovely.

And then at 08.00 the contractors doing the waterfront road and paving started up!  They know how break the solitude.  Diggers, hydraulic hammer, tarmac scraper, and a whole range of jolly banter!  

Despite this we really like Peel and would want to come back again, for longer.  Here are few more pictures to remind us:

The view from the top Peel Hill


There is a huge pile of clam shells at the top of the
beach near St Patrick’s Isle

Top left clockwise: one of the buttresses on Peel Castle (thanks to the Earl of Derby); plaque at The Creek; the orange workmen brighten up the morning with their road sweeper and other toys; in the company of Vikings.

A short while after 09.00 the harbour gate was lowered and we took part in a procession of boats  leaving the harbour, and we were on our way to Dun Laoghaire.

The harbour gate at low tide.  It is lowered when the incoming
tide reaches the top of the gate - about 2 hours before high tide -
and raised again 2 hours after high tide.

Having left Peel we headed in a straight line for Dun Laoghaire, an 8h 20m journey.  The weather was pretty good - a bit windier than we anticipated but on the nose and so not too rough.  A lot of cloud with some thin sun, sometimes warmish and sometimes quite cool.  We were accompanied for half the journey by the distant Mourne Mountains and the occasional fishing boat, and one small freighter that had to change course to avoid us. 

Passing the south end of the Isle of Man - the Calf is far right 

A fishing boat half way across 

Howth Head lighthouse - we’ve nearly arrived!

We went straight to the fuel berth in Dun Laoghaire marina and refilled, at a price 25p/ltr cheaper than in Bangor. That saves us a lot of money!

We had 28 species for today’s boat bird list.

Eating aboard this evening and finishing a game of cards we started last night.

Today’s route: 




























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