It was all going so well, until Covid struck

 

"The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley" - Robert Burns

We looked at the shipping forecast yesterday morning and decided that a sea state of 'moderate to rough', combined with the wind directly behind us, would be a recipe for a very uncomfortably rolly sail to the Isles of Scilly. With a much more friendly wind and wave combination forecast for the end of this week, we decided that a few more days in Ireland would be a great idea.

This turned out to be fortuitous decision because Dianne had a very sleepless and feverish night last night and has tested positive for Covid this morning (Graham has tested negative, for the moment at least). Had we been at sea, as originally planned, she just wouldn't have been able to stand a night watch and would have had an even more miserable night.

We have therefore decided that self isolation at anchor rather,  than staying in a busy marina, would be a good idea so this afternoon, while Dianne returned to her bunk, Graham sailed (well, motored, in flat calm) Maunie around the Old Head of Kinsale to Courtmacsherry.

Old Head of Kinsale lighthouse

Courtmacsherry is a little holiday town, approached along a narrow river channel between shallow mud banks.

There is a small visitors' pontoon here but we decided that, in our infectious state,  we should stay away from other yachts so found a fairly small space to anchor amongst the moorings on the south side of the channel. The current runs quite quickly here and the boats all change direction with the incoming and outgoing tide so we've set up what's known as a Bahamian Mooring, using two anchors:

To achieve this, you drop and anchor as normal, then let out extra chain to allow you to lower the second anchor over the stern. You then pull back in on the first anchor chain to position the boat roughly equidistant between the two anchors. Finally, you shackle a block (pulley) to the first anchor chain and run the second anchor rope through it and pull it tight. When the tide changes, the boat swings around but stays pretty much in the same position, rather than drifting down into the neighbouring moorings as would happen if we just relied on one anchor. We're glad to report that it seems to have worked really well.

So our new plan is to hang here for a couple of days to see how we are feeling. Hopefully we'll still be ok to sail back to Dartmouth at the weekend but, of course, social distancing on a 38ft boat is tricky so Graham fully expects to test positive soon and, being a man, will of course have it much worse.