We sat for a while in a home game of the Cork County Cricket Club. Cricket has been played at the Mardyke since 1850, but the Club has only played there since its formation in 1874.
The crew applauded politely; a lady next to us explained the sport to her daughter, and told tales of her grandfather's prowess. The players were all elegantly decked in white. No slobs there.
This is the planet's second most popular sport, yet it was the first game the Peregrinus crew has watched. Provincials!
Jeremy Deller's banner at the Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork (formerly Queen's College). Leica Typ 114, 14 June 2015.
At nearly 300 years, the Royal Cork Yacht Club is the oldest in the world. It was founded by a young William O’Brien, the 9th Lord Inchiquin, whom apparently got the sailing bug from his grandfather, the 6th Lord, and whom in turn is believed to have brought the sport from London, where he attended the court of Charles II. There, the recently arrived king enthusiastically sailed Mary on the Thames. Mary was a private jacht —Dutch for a swift, light vessel—, which the nederlander Seven United Provinces had presented Charles on occasion of his departure from exile.
Peregrinus stays here for a few days, doing light maintenance and awaiting a weather window for passage to the Isles of Scilly.
From the mast hangs the civil ensign club members can legally use on their boats: the Irish flag in canton on a field of blue, defaced with a crowned golden harp.
Life isn't about how you survived the storm...
It's about how you danced in the rain!
Kinsale, Newman's Mall. iPhone 6 Plus, 1/1464", 5 June 2015.
Fastnet was known as "Ireland's Teardrop", because it was the last part of Ireland that 19th century Irish emigrants saw as they sailed to North America.
For the crew of Peregrinus, however, this was the first sight of the Old World: the top of the lighthouse, peeking from a dark sea.
Click the photo for additional images.
Fort Lauderdale to Kinsale: 3,524 nautical miles, 6,526 kilometres, 29 days, four crew: the Seaman, John, the Alférez, and the Admiral, who was the designated Captain for the trip.
Canon PowerShot G15, 29 May 2015
County Cork looks... like the movies of Ireland. Emerald green pastures, with hedge rows in between the fields in the rolling hills. In the flower of Spring, tree leaves shimmer in sunlight in an orgy of green.
A gentleman from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine arrived promptly after our arrival, as previously arranged, to admit the Alférez into Ireland. The fee is €50. As we had no Euros yet, he said no problem: he issued and stamped a receipt, and asked us to leave him an envelope with the fee at the bar. We say, 'Sláinte' that!
The Kinsale Yacht Club registration takes place at the bar: best location for check-in we have ever seen. The Admiral asked for an electric adapter for Peregrinus' US-type electric plug. A gentleman in the bar volunteered to help, walked the Admiral back to the boat, and ended up taking the Seaman all over the County searching for said adapter. The gizmo cost €2.30. The life stories John the Scot-transplanted-into-Kinsale and captain of Igraine of Camelot told us over beers and wine back at Peregrinus all afternoon are priceless.
