“Anything with a west in it....”, that's what they say on this side of Dundalk Bay - a huge bite out of the northeast coast of Ireland before the mountains of Mourne but an end to the sea's hunger. It's 11miles wide and when the sea empties and when the sun shines you could mistake it for a flat desert coated with a good dose of rain. And there it stays for hours and hours being dried out with the sun and sea breezes until it floods again from both the north and south of the Irish sea. Little is written about it and sailors tend to avoid it, instead cutting across to Carlingford where a comfortable depth of water is always assured. The wooden wreck of a ship sits beside where I'm presently beached, like so many others in the bay they were locally owned and used to draw coal, bricks and grain over and back to Liverpool. Some men are still alive, I am told, that lived and worked out of these wooden crafts now ship wrecked on the shore.
The Newgrange Currach has moved on in leaps and bounds. It is difficult to know now what is left to alter or tweak, perhaps the rudders' shafts could be slimmed or the ballast reduced, the boat is slow but very steady and fun to steer. The winds are to change, they say, next week but don't hold your breath, it has been northeasterly for the best part of 5 weeks now. The worm in my head still slithers and slimes - the rawhide seams could break anytime. But each day I check for weaknesses in each seam and all seems good so far, for as much as I can get to from the outside. It has always been the greatest question in all of this archeological experiment....will the seams holdout????
The Newgrange Currach has moved on in leaps and bounds. It is difficult to know now what is left to alter or tweak, perhaps the rudders' shafts could be slimmed or the ballast reduced, the boat is slow but very steady and fun to steer. The winds are to change, they say, next week but don't hold your breath, it has been northeasterly for the best part of 5 weeks now. The worm in my head still slithers and slimes - the rawhide seams could break anytime. But each day I check for weaknesses in each seam and all seems good so far, for as much as I can get to from the outside. It has always been the greatest question in all of this archeological experiment....will the seams holdout????
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