LAND HO!!
Ireland comes in sight at 3:15 a.m. on our watch. Fading into view from a long stretch of dark cloud to the ENE, a line of hills echoes the bumps in the tops of the long line of cloud. On our other side is a full moon looking through more loose cloud in a blue sky, with a gold blaze on the water which is steel blue. Jupiter rides just below the moon.
Ireland slips by: some things sticking up on hills which might be castles; some fields, yellow & green. All a hint of something in the haze rather than anything substantial. Still does not seem real that this is Ireland, pretty, fabled land... How many seafarers have plied this passage before us?
The coast disappears again, almost, as we sail up St George's Channel. Helm by moonlight again; everything is silver-grey. Leaning on the helm, thinking, I'm steering a sailing ship at sea. Wow. Cool.
Approaching our first anchorage, near Glascarrig Point. Furling like mad, we are joined by a few dolphins. These ones are jumping & slapping their tails, as if in welcome. There are strange & busy signs of civilization; tankers/freighters, big ferries. One container ship diverted its course to have a look at us. What do we look like, this thing from another time appearing from over the horizon? Do we appear to be a mirage? Ireland seems no less a mirage to us, a bunched-up carpet of hills under a grey-cloud sky with only a brief hint of a round ball of sun. We're all peering through binoculars, as a small group of people on the shore look back at us.