"Sailing" aboard the Glen Marissa

Ok..I say "sailing" because this was meant to be a wind-powered sailing outing. As sailing is. But first....We had the most beeeeaaaautiful day in Dublin. It was ridiculously warm - literally, shorts and sandals.. (unheard of) and we were invited out on a beautiful sailboat by our friend Graham. The only problem, there wasn't even the rumor of wind. Not even the slightest sea breeze.

Our Girl, ready to roll. She was furious when we said she needed to take this off while we walked to the sailing club.

We arrive at the Royal St. George Yacht Club (oooo!) and had the "boat man" take us out to our trusty sailboat.

(This guy, taking us out, is the same guy who will enter our story a bit later on. Pay attention!)

So we boarded our boat, the Glen Marissa. A gorgeous, small wooden sailboat built in 1947. There a about 10 of these 'Glen' boats in the marina and they are, by far, the boats with the most character. They're small wooden sailboats each painted different colors: Green, blue, white, lavender and they all have names beginning with Glen. "Glen Marissa", "Glen Shane", "Glen Murphy", etc. - save one - named "Pterodactyl." No kidding.

 LOVE this one of Norah.

 This is the exact boat we're on, except Graham's is dark blue on the bottom.

Much better than the white. 

 Wayne and Graham "Puttin' up the Jib!" Yes, I learned some terminology on this outing.

 Baby skipper.

Here is a video of us leaving the harbour. I mostly took this so you could hear the trumpet being played on the pier. It was so beautiful! (All year round there are people playing live music on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire and there's something so magical about it.)

Graham is telling us a story about a famous "sail around the world" trip back in the 1950s (1960s?) where one guy realized he couldn't make it (but had put up evvverything as collateral) so he just stayed in one spot, and kept radio'ing back fake locations. Anyway, this went on for 6 months, meanwhile, the poor guy lost his mind entirely and about 100 miles away from the finish line (England) he jumped off his boat and was never found. Another guy, who was set to be in 3rd place also lost his marbles (after 6 months alone at sea) and decided (50 miles from the finish!) that he would, instead, "go around again!". He made it half way around, believe it or not. Not sure if he survived it though. Apparently there is a documentary about this trip so we hope to find it.  

It's awful in the video, I know, because you want to hear the rest of the story!

Anyway, our story gets better:

 Here we are sailing. La di da di da!

 There's Dalkey Island....

There's some castle houses....no biggy

 Things are slowing down a bit....

 Lovely Girls' School. Oh wait, Graham just called his dad and used the term "Marooned". We are officially "Marooned at Sea"! We are marooned at Dalkey Island! Ahhh!!

 So Wayne and Graham get to work on the "emergency motor" which, after 15 minutes of trying, does not seem to work. Graham tried his heart out. Great, wonderful. However, thank goodness for the St. Georges' trusty "Boat Man" who was able to come and rescue us!!

 Fast forward one hour: Our rescue tow-boat, here to save the day!

 I thought this was all so hilarious and felt like this must be a one in a million occurence but... apparently it happens fairly often. I knew it could be dangerous on a sail boat (ie: too much wind) but I never quite thought about the possibility that if there is zero wind (almost an impossibility in Dublin in my experience), you can't move. I really thought we were going to have to 'fashion' some oars and row our way back. Graham said that would take several days so.... I'm glad it didn't come to that. =)

But, while being towed back, if you forgot about the boat pulling us, you could pretend we were just out for a lovely sail. And we did. That boat pulled us surprisingly quickly.

Back at 'the club'. This is the next one over, called the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Wayne and I felt like we were illegally trespassing but we just tried to stick close to Graham. Kidding. At this one, they have a barbeque every Thursday as most people come sailing after work. It's essentially a very nice pub where everyone owns a boat. We had the best time! I've decided I'd like to be a member. Not for the sailing, nor do I desire to own a boat, really just for the barbeque, the sunshine and the feeling of being elitist. Kidding again. We want to go back next week.

It was the most beautiful day and we were so thankful to be out on the water in the Irish Sea. It just doesn't get any better. We kept saying to Norah - "Do you know how blessed you are?? You're not even TWO yet and you're sailing in Dublin?" We were especially thankful for our friend Graham who shared all of this with us. He showed us one of the best days since we've lived in Dublin.