Wednesday, 7 August

Our morning position was 50-52-59 N, 12-46-58 W.

I didn’t know why, but I was completely exhausted again after breakfast this morning.  I managed to do my writing, but towards the end my eyes were very heavy, and my head was nodding.  When I went into the cabin to change into exercise garb, I had to lie down and take a nap.  On reflection, I realized that it was probably due to the time changes.  The last time I sailed on a U.S. Navy ship – in 1993 – we sailed back from the Persian Gulf to San Diego, and I remembered that even though the time zone changes were just one hour at a time, they took an unexpectedly heavy toll.

After my nap Ellen and I walked a mile and a half on the port deck.  The sky was pretty cool: to the south it was sunny with intermittent clouds, while to the north it was grey all over.  There was a small storm system a few miles north of the ship, characterized by a very dark cloud and a large column of rain water between it and the sea.

While walking and watching the storm move, we spotted a whale about 400 yards off the port side.  Actually, we only spotted the spout.  It was small and we couldn’t see the animal.  Just the spout about every 10 seconds, moving west.

We were getting closer to land and seeing the signs.  That morning during our pre-breakfast coffee we saw an oil rig off the port stern.  It appeared to be about two miles away.  And then at the end of our walk we noticed a flock of about 30 seagulls following the ship and diving into the water about 300 yards astern. 

Oil rig at sea

I mentioned that we had had vegetables for lunch on Tuesday, and that I had complimented the chef afterwards & that it had paid off in spades.  Well, on Wednesday at lunch I had another big portion of the same vegetables...but I was the only one who got them!  Ha ha...that was Dale Carnegie Rule #2 in action ("Give Honest and Sincere Appreciation").

And in mid-afternoon it appeared.  Land ho!  We were off the western coast of Ireland.  

Western coast of Ireland

The first thing everyone did was check to see if they had a cell phone signal.  We did.  So there was a flurry of checking emails and whatnot.  Even some of the crew took advantage of it to make phone calls from the outer deck.

Ireland was beautiful.  It took a few hours for the sun and clouds to cooperate, but eventually it was apparent why it’s called The Emerald Isle.  In the right light it was a brilliant green.

We sailed a few miles offshore for the rest of the day and into the evening.  At one point we noticed four large ships congregated near a particular spot, and Sebastian’s cell phone map informed us it was the city of Cork.

With those signs, along with the knowledge that we should be in Liverpool soon, people were starting to get a bit of channel fever.  They were ready for this to be over.