Day 14 Tuesday April 2nd At Sea



Our cabin attendants towel sculpture

And so we had another full day on board when we were expecting to leave the boat at St Mary’s.  We woke up as we were leaving Cobh harbour to make our way round Lands End to finish at Poole tomorrow morning.  When we got into open water it was

the seas were choppy

 obvious why it would be unsafe to operate tenders today as there was quite a swell.  We had a relaxing day going to a lecture on jet engines, listening to a session of some familiar songs being sung, eating and talking.  In the late afternoon we were tracking the boat’s position and reckoned we were the nearest we would get to home when it got to 6pm. 



Seven Stones lightship

We went up onto the deck 

the islands on the horizon

when we could see the Seven Stones lightship from our cabin window (we were on the starboard side).  From the deck we could see Land’s End clearly as well as the lightship and the outline of 

Round Island

the islands on the horizon.  I managed to zoom onto Round Island with the camera.  There was also a gannet swooping round the boat.  At one stage it was obvious there was a heavy shower on the islands but 

Gannet flying round Astoria

we remained dry.

 

We had some tea and went back to the cabin to start packing and do some blogging.  We had been told our cases had to be outside the cabin by midnight. Christine packed one case whilst the other had to be left until after we returned from dinner and this evening’s show.  We changed for dinner and spent an enjoyable meal with our new found friends on table 68.  Eventually we said our farewells in case we did not meet in the morning and said goodbye to the waiting staff who had served us so well.  We then transferred to the theatre to watch the final show entitled “End of the Pier”.  The small show team as usual did ever so well entertaining us with a well thought out progamme of familiar songs.  It was 2315 by the conclusion and so we had to pack our final stuff for the second case in rather a hurry and it wasn’t without incident.  Everything else would be packed in our rucksack and daybag.  We had quite a late night but also prepared for tomorrow as we had to vacate the cabin by 0730 the next morning!

Day 13 April 1st Cobh & Cork

We had a smooth overnight passage round the Irish coast to Cobh.  This was the last port from which the Titanic sailed and we hoped that wasn’t an omen.  As we breakfasted we could see we were alongside the quay and just across from the quay was the railway 

quay rest shelter

station.  There was a container on the quay and we observed that one of those might be useful on St Martin’s whilst waiting for the freight launch.  We had decided not to go on an excursion but to take the train to Cork which took about 25 minutes.  We had done a little research and knew where we wanted to head to.  The train journey was quite scenic with us stopping at various small towns. 

We made the short walk from the station going over the 

English Market

River Lee to the shopping centre

fish stall in market

 and had to have a short look in Marks & Spencer.  We carried on along St Patrick’s St (the main shopping street) until we reached the English Market.  This fresh produce market seemed to have everything that could have been produced or caught locally – fish, meat & vegetables – and other craft products.  We spent some time browsing the stalls wishing we could get some home and eventually decided to have coffee and cake.  After this we looked again before leaving.



St Fin Barre's Catthedral

Our next destination was the nearby

the cathedral altar

 Anglican St Fin Barre’s Cathedral (he’s the patron saint of Cork).  This had been rebuilt in the 1860s but was an inspiring structure.  We paid our entrance fee and were able to explore at our leisure. The organ pipes unusually were in a recess in the floor and so we could peer in at them.  We spent some time here before taking our leave in order to find our next place of 

the organ pipes

interest.

Cathedral main entrance



 

 

 

 

  We wanted to head for the Elizabethan fort.  We got slightly lost but with local help we found the entrance but the bad news for us was that it was closed on Mondays!  Better research required.  Other cruise passengers were there so we had much disappointment.  Time was passing and so we decided to head back towards the station.  We largely retraced our steps, looking in one or two more shops, had a rest in a small park and caught the 1400 train back to Cobh.

We deposited most of our stuff in the cabin, had a cup of tea and decided to go to the Titanic heritage centre which was nearby.  We spent over an hour in the interesting place which told the story of emigration from Ireland making a feature of the last Titanic voyage.  We could have spent longer there but had to reboard the Astoria.  Once back on board we learnt that we would not be visiting Scilly tomorrow because of the weather (there had been consultations with St Mary’s harbour) but we would now stay at Cobh overnight and sail direct to Poole.  A bit of a disappointment for many on board especially us as we were hoping to leave the cruise on our doorstep.

 

Day 12 Sunday, March 31st Dublin



River Liffey

We had left the dramatic, 

one of many Dublin churches

beautiful natural scenery of the anchorage at Oban and woke up the next morning to be amongst the heavily, industrialised dock area of Dublin quay.  We had docked on time and the weather was dry, cool with sun and cloud.  We breakfasted and joined our 

Mr Guinness helped build Cathedral!

city tour coach excursion at 0900.  The guide was a

Celtic cross in cathedral



Phoenix Gardens

 typical jolly Irishman who 

Cathedral altar

described the various famous buildings, parks and personnel as wended our 

Cathedral nave

way on either bank of the River Liffey.  We stopped for some time at St Patrick’s Cathedral had a tour and met the dean.  The cathedral was impressive with an effective WW1 memorial sculpture.  We then had some free time and we went for a coffee in a local shop where a jazz band was playing.



Part of Guinness brewery

We had the option of staying

Jeannie Johnston emigration ship replica

 in the city and catching a shuttle bus back to the boat or going straight back to the boat which is the option we chose.  Our overall impression was that Dublin is not a city we would rush back to visit – our guide was excellent but we are not really city people and Dublin did not have a particular appeal.  It was 1330 by now and we had a light lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, reading and blogging.

Our evening was spent dining and we went to the entertainment show which was based on the “Rock” musical and this we enjoyed