Leaving Knights Town after a week alongside the marina sitting out the prolonged northerly winds Lady Belle headed for Brandon Bay via the Blasket Sound on the longest day of the year. A 15 nm trip across Dingle Bay had LB at the southern end of the Sound. It was a fast passage through assisted by tide and wind . We saw lots of seals sunbathing on the golden sandy beach of the Great Blasket Island as ferry boats dropped visitors ashore there. With 25 nm remaining to Brandon Bay the winds pick up and LB enjoyed a very brisk sail around Sybil Head taking in the dramatic views of the Three Sisters and Mount Brandon (Peak 950m) all which rise sharply up out of the sea.
The bottle nose dolphins along here were big, looked well fed and stayed with us from Smerwick until rounding Brandon Point. The forecasted stronger & gusty southerly winds were already picking up as we anchored next to a French yacht and in front of Fermoyle beach at Brandon. Donal was preparing for a second anchor when a fisherman came alongside and offered us his unoccupied mooring. We were more than happy to accept as overnight anchor watches were now cancelled! The shellfish we also received from him were a tasty lunch time treat next day.
Next morning the winds eased early and the rain stopped by midday. A big shoal of moon jellyfish appeared in the Bay when the tide turned after low water. Definitely no swimming. There had been too many compass jellyfish in Valentia to swim and now moons galore here in Brandon!
There was nice sunshine on our second evening at Brandon and after landing at the pier it was lovely to see the turf fire lighting in Murphy’s Bar. Coincidentally, Éanna Ní Lamhna featured a report in the IT the next day stating that thousands of female spider crabs who come close to shore at this time of year to lay their eggs were washed up onto Fermoyle beach in recent days due to the persistent strong north winds.
Next morning LB was up and away early for the 55 nm sail to Inish Mór. It was a dull day with following winds that promised to shift westerly by the afternoon. The passage across the 18 nm wide Shannon Estuary to Loop Head is not the most interesting. Loop Head 3 nm to starboard was just about visible and today wasn’t a day for diverting to see the Cliffs of Moher. Passing through the Gregory Sound between Inish Mór and Inish Meáin LB rounded the lighthouse to Kilronan picking up one of the 12 visitor moorings.
Dún Aonghasa, Pol Na Bpéist (Worm Hole), Black Fort among other sites were visited previously. Caladh Mór pier on Inish Meáin has a few alongside berths and LB sat out a 3 day gale there in 2021. A beautiful scenic island with not as many tourists as Inish Mór.
