Douglas to Dublin - A sail of three halves

We left with an F5 coming from where I want to go & a sea state that was still disturbed from the previous days gale.  Choice was to close haul back in to the island or head for Wales !  Not much of a choice I now but we picked Wales & headed south.

The previous day showed my crew what I was capable of, despite their best efforts to the contrary, soon Anglesea  appeared on the horizon, in fact it was the only thing that appeared on the horizon all day !  Frightened of the prospect of actually reaching Wales, we tacked.  This was not an easy tack, speed dropped waves knocked what little speed I had & we were heading with more north than I wanted.

Eventually spotting that the topping lift had decided to become part of my trim set, it was dumped which improved things , but not much.  Another tack south soon brought our speed back up & when almost east of Dublin we tacked again.

By now as predicted the wind dropped & backed round to the south, this poor tack soon improved with the introduction of full sails, 20 knots of apparent wind & I was steered west with a tad of south.

Seeing land is one thing, getting there is another & with the wind dropping & the clock the only constant in this environment, we motored the last 15nm into Dun Laoghaire (Dun Leary).

Trying to spot the lights of the harbour entrance is not always as easy as you'd expect and these were no exception.  Finally I get in & if I had a hand brake my skipper would have used it to get me in.