The boats are both now laid up ashore for the rest of the Winter, My Charter boat just got lifted this week so that puts an end to the longest season I have had, I launched in late March and had my last days out early in December. I don't have a Baltimore mooring so I was tying up in Hegarty's which meant getting up and down the river in the morning and evening, leaving at day break and getting back after dark. 

The last morning out the boat was frozen solid when I arrived around 7 on a Sunday morning. She has no cold start so it took a bit of cranking before she came to life. All the decks where frozen as well as all the ropes. I had to stop a few times on the way down river to hose down the windscreen. Things finally thawed out a bit by the time I was South of Baltimore. 

It was a novelty for a few days but I don't envy lads who fish commercially all Winter.

I am going to organise another heavy duty mooring next Summer so I have the option of staying in longer if not all Winter. My current moorings should be well up to it but I would want to be absolutely sure. Operating from a mooring would mean I could avoid the really early mornings and late evenings and working as much in the dark. 

As for Winter sailing! Its pretty dam cold in the wheelhouse not to mind standing in a cockpit.

I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here's to a great 2015 and a fantastic Summer's sailing. Cheers!

So kid's, bubbles and my laptop haven't mixed well so once again I'm without all my photos and everything. I'm getting properly stuck into a house renovation for the winter and i find this a good  time of year to cover up the boats and leave them well alone until the spring, although my charter boat has yet to be lifted out. I have quite a list of things to do to teal before next season but most of it is next to impossible while the covers are on anyway. I'll just have to stock pile with timber, varnish and paint in the mean time. The first thing i will do is give the mast 2 more coats of varnish and have it stepped so i can put up a boom tent to make work possible but that won't  be for a few months yet. I've been reading a few books which i found really good so if your looking for some holiday reading and old boats are your thing then   "tales from a cornish lugger " and its sequel "more tales from a cornish lugger" i would  highly recommend. The second book is mainly based aboard the lugger 'Ibis' which has been sailing around here in the last couple of seasons.                                            

Sunny Sundays

Teal sailing out of Glandore late on a Sunday evening during the Summer. Photo by Tim Cooke

Strangely every Sunday this month the weather has been lovely and the forecast for the week ahead looks good too. A year round mooring is becoming a must for next year at least for one of the boats.

Valhalla

I'm renovating my parents old house at the moment and when I took down a stud partition I found a newspaper and a few photos that Dad put there 20 years ago. At the time he was skippering a charter boat out of Courtmacsherry, he was running the Mark Antony, a wooden (probably half decker) that I don't remember all that well other than it had an open back wheelhouse with a raised floor that housed the engine and vibrated like mad. One of the photos was of a second boat belonging to the same person. The 'Valhalla' I remembered her as being very good looking and an older design, I think Dad chose to run the the Mark Antony because she had more room despite being shorter.
The boats where replaced in the mid to late ninetys, I would love to know what happened to the Valhalla, She must be something a long the lines of a West Country Tosher and about 35ft long. As well as that I really like the name. It would be a crying shame if she rotted away somewhere.

The joys of running a passenger boat back then, No rails, no licence and pretty sure Dad said they didn't even have a bilge pump worth talking about.

November fishing

Teal is all tucked up now for the Winter, I put a proper cover over her so hopefully she will stay reasonably clean and dry although she has already been subjected to blasting grit fall out which makes a big bloody mess. Downside to being near the trawler slip. The sails have gone off to the sailmakers, the rigging screws are in a big tub of diesel and the rigging wire is sitting in a bucket of linseed oil. I flushed the engine but I still need drain the block and the exhaust before any frosty weather. I will be selling a little Petter AC1W 6hp soon by the way if anyone is looking for one. The single cylinder version of Teals engine.

I am holding out as long as I can keeping my charter boat in the water in the hope of good weather, Yesterday was looking good and I had a group so I headed off before day break, It was a lumpy morning out but as the day went on it settle down nicely and ended up being a gorgeous evening. I had the sun setting behind me on the way back up river. It was fairly well dark by the time I finished up. 

There are Fin whales and humpbacks about but unfortunately they are staying further South than I have been fishing, although the gannets were putting on a great show diving for sprat all day.

Last day out

We moved the charter boats back to the boatyard for the Winter on Wednesday, Absolutely beautiful day out for the 5th of November. Makes you not want to put them away, By Thursday the weather was crap again

Local fishing boat working in the harbour

Down South & Southward bound

 

Leo & Co. have the right idea and set off from Baltimore a few months ago onboard Síle a Dó.
Síle started life as a Hegarty built fishing boat, By the time I first ventured into Hegarty's Leo had been toiling away in a tent for quite awhile, She had at that stage grown several feet longer and had her deck beams in place, I think she had gained a ballast keel and a built out rudder skeg by then as well. She has been sailing locally for the last few seasons. Great to see them off in her now and Leo getting his moneys worth.

http://helen77od.wix.com/sailingsile

Sile before her conversion

Leo's blog of the conversion here http://sileado.blogspot.ie/