Holed up and Resting

Baltimore Beacon guides all sailors safely to harbour
Kyle and Maryanne Toast their arrival with a Guinness and a Murphy's at Bushe's Bar in Baltimore
Baltimore Village
[Maryanne]Whew, we are in a hotel/B&B and back on a reasonably normal (for a teenager) sleep pattern. We've had hot baths and plenty of beers and good food. All is well with the world. Our hotel provides forced relaxation, there is not even any internet available there. We're currently in the local boat friendly pub (they even offer free showers) for lunch and WiFi. The boat is out there at anchor, looking after itself until we are "ready" for the big clean up involved and to start fixing things.

We've finally caught up with reading (but not replying to) emails, and our blog comments. We'll catch up properly with emails in a week or two. We'll get around to posting some video too.

A BIG Thank you to all of you that commented in any way and those that have followed our progress with such obvious concern and support.

TO Scott on Split Decision - GREAT Job on the widget that shows the world where we are on our blog page - I wasn't expecting the Europe map to be visible - it looks great. I know how disappointed you are in our lack of fishing, and we've had a good chuckle at your frustration on our part. No TVP for you eh? LOL. For the most part Kyle and I are vegetarians, but we will eat Free range/organic produce where we can find and trust it. TVP really is great boat food (no refrigeration, easy); honest, really perfect boat food, but I see we'll not convert you. Thanks again for the Widget, and great to hear you got some sailing done now spring/summer is here.

We arrived in Baltimore to a rough wave-filled Harbour filled with pre-assigned mooring balls and no response from anyone on the various VHF radio channels. We eventually anchored and then rowed ashore in big waves and lots of wind. We checked in with the Harbour master office to find his son decorating - assuring us we didn't need to worry about customs/immigration. Eventually he called his Dad for us, who just asked for our details and said not to worry.. We found the local Guarda (Police) at the dockside hanging out in their car. We told them we'd just arrived and were looking for Customs/Immigration... "OH, don't worry, you'll be fine" was the response, which when we pressed they just sent us to the local pub for more info. YES - you hear me right, the police sent us to the pub for legal info.. Freaking Hilarious! You gotta love Ireland. We've left several messages and aren't 100% sure if we are here legally or not, but the beer is helping us discount any worries.

Once we gave up with the formalities, we checked in to our local hotel (Thanks Mom), had a really long hot bath, and a short nap, then headed out to the pub. There, we toasted our arrival officially and Kyle made a beautiful romantic speech telling me what a great first mate he has. (Naturally). At the bar, we met Len, a local Dr. who took us under his wing, bought us more beers than we planned to drink and then took us back to his house to watch the sunset and share some wine; this was great company and a wonderful welcome to Ireland; Thanks Len. His sunset views really must be one of the greatest in Ireland.

Stunning sunset from Len's house in Baltimore - WOW, our first night in Ireland
Today we slept again for hours (Surfacing for a BIG breakfast, before returning to bed), and now find ourselves back in the pub (Bushes) :-) What a terrible life we lead eh?

We expect to move on to Cork to get laundry and boat repairs done, and to meet up with Family visiting and we'll take our time to get there.
A Hot Bath is really welcome after so long at sea!