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Anna's Crosshaven Photo Journal

 

We are in Crosshaven  in our boat. The Irish believe that Crosshaven was founded as a Norman settlement in the 13^th century.

The Town

Low tide

 

 

Walking back to the boat from Town

 

 

Saint Brendan was an Irish saint. Some people believe that he went to America and some don’t. A man, Tim Severin tried to prove that St. Brendan went to America, by making a boat like the  ones that they had then and going across the ocean with it.

Walking to the Royal Cork Yacht Club

In Town at the Farmer's Market

Drake's Pool

 Sir Francis Drake, in 1589, was leading a fleet of five warships. He was chased by a Spanish fleet into Cork Harbour. They went to this hidden pool and when the Spanish came into the harbor, they could not see them so they turned around and left.

An old home and barn

 

 

Canons at Castle Point Park

The Royal Cork Yacht Club, Regatta Weekend

We stayed at the Royal Cork Yacht Club the oldest yacht club in the world!

 

 

 

Dad wanted me to point out the Irish boat stands (Guinness, of course), Midwatch is in a cradle.

 In an early time the village of Crosshaven was protected by a castle originally named Crosstane and then renamed Johnscross. But they now call it Crosstane. They know that the castle was really there because they found a window head where we are at Castlepoint Boatyard!

 

This cruise ship was heading to New York City but the sea was too rough so they came into Cork Harbour to wait. This is where the Titanic left from!

Those Bloody Yanks Need Rescuing Again

A couple of weeks ago we had the great misfortune to get caught in a tidal current and in a matter of moments, the damage was done.  An anchor on a bow-out boat caught the wind generator which pulled the life lines, which bent the stanchions, which cracked the fiberglass, broke the pull pit and obliterated the wind generator. In addition, we came to rest on a marina sign which took off a good chunk of the teak toe rail. It didn’t seem like too much but the damage quickly adds up and it became obvious very quickly that repairs would need to be made before we went anywhere, and on land.  The marina sign has a nice dent, now dubbed the “American dent.”

There are two boatyards here in the little Town of Crosshaven, known as the ‘Sailing Capital of Ireland.’  Within an hour of the accident we had experts on the boat and we were hauled the next day at high tide. The boatyard’s travel lift pulls the boats at the town boat launch and we sat in the cockpit, up the ramp, along the main road and turned the corner into the boatyard, it was the ‘walk’ of shame as people stopped to take pictures, smile and wave as we went by.

We settled into boatyard life again quickly and didn’t lack for activities including school, consulting, boat projects and everyday life for a family of four including cooking, eating, laundry, dishes and growing up.  Life has been domestic. The kids have been growing like weeds. Finn was growing so fast he was having trouble speaking for a week or so and Anna is like a sponge, absorbing life and knowledge. Finn has recently been asking a lot of questions about the finality of death, probably based on our dire consequences-warning about falling off the boat onto the gravel yard 15 feet below. He is very concerned about dying and has asked a zillion questions. Our preaching was all set aside following our witness of the Camden Fort military reenactments. The scenes were exciting and well done and the look on Finn’s face when all the soldiers got up after they had ‘died’ was priceless, it did not help our cause. 

We had big dreams of renting a car and getting out and about but we have had steady tasks here needing attention.  The wonderful family that runs the boatyard has treated us like family and even put us in the lower yard so that we would be closer to the park. We have made almost daily visits to the park and seem to have met most of the Town’s folks.  In this small town, word gets around quickly and everyone seems to know our story from the German nanny to the attendant at the tourist information booth.  The kids have taken a sudden interest in American Football which is of no surprise to anyone but us. We have had fun with the little Canadian Football League, junior size football we found in the lazarette when we purchased the boat and it has provided hours of exercise-related entertainment in the park and serves as a real conversation-starter.  With the huge sailing population here, we are finding lots in common with the young, dynamic residents and have already made a number of new friends. We hope someday we will see some of these great folks on our travels or back home in New England. 

Another big distraction and item of conversation has been the America’s Cup races in San Francisco Bay. We were entertained Saturday evening by a lovely family involved in the sailing industry. Bob and their 12-yr (I think) son spent a good bit of time catching up on races.  After the stunning eight-race, come-from-behind win by the American boat (as opposed to Americans, there were few Americans onboard), we were surprised to see it hardly make the US News outlets, but the final race was being replayed on the television at the grocery store and appeared on the front page of all the major papers.  Speaking of sports, today is the national hurling final rematch; the Cork team is in it! We are still not too sure what this is about other than it is sort of like lacrosse without the pads and rules and uses a stick that resembles a flat field hockey stick. They claim it is the fastest sport going. I am quite certain I have heard this said of lacrosse too so we shall see… once we have unlimited internet.  Perhaps Saint Brendan brought the sport back from North America when he was there 1500 years ago…

So despite the fact that we have not made it to Blarney castle or the Titanic Exhibit in Cobh, we have been getting a real feel for life in small town Ireland.  After our initial shock from the crash, we kept ourselves sane, telling each other it is all part of the adventure. If you look at our goals for the trip, Taking the Road less Travelled, meeting new people and seeing new places…getting out of our comfort zone, we are doing a great job although I admit, other than the lack of laundry facilities, it is pretty darn comfortable here.  We did make it to the Fort, a five minute walk from the boat for the reenactments and couldn’t help chuckling when the WWII reenactment featured the Irish Rifles rescuing the “Bloody Yanks”, sometimes, we do need a little rescuing.

With October rapidly approaching we are also beginning to think, again, about passage to Spain. The weather is not at all amenable to a crossing now but we still are confident that it will come. We have been told by several different sailors that a slow trip down the French coast is not the end of the world but we know it will be slow and expensive.  In other sailing news, the kids and I have decided to stay on the boat across to Sint Maarten.   This was an agonizing decision to make and I won’t know if I made the right decision until it is done; but I know I will regret it if I don’t take the trip. Planned departure is from the Canaries, sometime around November 22.

We made the Newspaper!

Flatanger, Norway Newspaper Article

The article is fun but all in Norwegian! Great photos too.

Fort Camden, By Anna

Yesterday (9/14) we went for a walk to tour Fort Camden, located on a hill overlooking the entrance to Cork harbor near Crosshaven, Ireland.

 The owners of the boat yard where we are living told us that the fort might be a good place to visit, because their grandfather was the caretaker of the fort so they spent a lot of time there. The next day we went. At the fort they were doing reenactments from WW II. First we saw part of the fort, including the cells (the jail.) The reenactments were just starting so we walked to where the reenactments were starting. We watched the first one and it was loud, loud, loud because of the guns. Finn and I had to put our hands over our ears. After that we walked to the “Square“ they called it, we learned the parts of the suits the Romans were wearing. We got to throw water balloons at the Romans. After that we got some ice cream it was good, then… we got to see another reenactment of WW II and when they did that an Irish man said … “We have to help those bloody yanks again! “ HA, HA, HA” came the crowd. So we then went to an exhibit about September 11^th in America we also learned that the earliest fort built was in 1550, built by the English.

By,

Anna

Another Day of Extremes

We had a busy day yesterday preparing for a fourth birthday party; and a passage to Spain that was not to be. We had a wonderful little birthday party with our new friends Eady and Richard and then untied from the dock to traverse to the fuel dock. The tide caught us and we had a little tussle with a bigger boat's anchor and a marina sign. Unfortunately the sign had the upper hand and we are facing an extended stay here in Ireland to pick up the pieces. Nobody got hurt so we are counting our blessings despite the wounded pride.

The long awaited Superman Cake!

Up the mountain ( Norway ) By, Anna

Me with my walking stick

We were visiting a family in Høylandet at their farm. While we were there we also visited their cottage in the mountains above their house. There were six kids under four and it was crazy, my Dad leaned over and said …” do you want to go for a walk up the mountain?”  I said yes so we started up. First we had to cross a rock bridge. I was happy that I had my walking stick. The first little mountain was pretty easy, then it got harder.  We kept going up and up. Then I noticed some heather. Then we went down, down, down! Then we had to rest a little while. That’s when I saw a mountain lake; that’s when I remembered our water bottle and said lets fill it up. We kept on moving then we got tired and decided to go back. I saw a rock and said lets push it, so we went and pushed, pushed, and pushed, it did not budge. Then we started down. It was gorgeous as we went down. Then I saw a better way to go. There were two rocks and we went right through the two. When we got back we had been gone for four hours.

By,

Anna

The cottage from above

Mountain Lakes

Resting

The Farm from above

Hard work

Enjoying the views