April 27, 2011: Mary and I are boarding our flight back to Scotland and Pipe Dream 9. This will begin her 15th year of sailing around the world. She is now on the 5th circumnavigation. The schedule as written on the last blog remains unchanged. In short we will circle the Baltic and then head south to the Canaries.
Most important, this will be the last post to posterious. I will go back to the original format of having emails forwarded by Tom Piper and others. You should get the first "blog" during the first week of May. To the 12 couples who will join me---see you soon. Scott Piper

In Kincastle the windlass broke again. In a very small harbour Mary drove the boat while I manually got the chain out to anchor. In the early morning rain squalls came through with 25 kts of wind. With Mary driving I got the anchor up and then the main up. The wind was dead behind. We had a great sail along the North Coast of Ireland. The North Coast is dramatic and it was a lovely but long day. Long because we covered 95 miles sometimes with adverse current, but we got into Ballycastle by dark. Again the need to keep moving with approaching winter drove us on. The next morning we set sail at dawn to cross the narrow straits between the Irish Sea and Scotland. This time the current was with us and so I saw an SOG of 12 knots using the engine only. An easy day got us into Troon, Scotland that had been highly recommended by David Tunick on "Nightwatch", a CCA member from New York. Oh boy, was he right. They have everything I need here; not only for winter, but for repairs. And so, we have changed our flight plans and get back to Miami on the 28th. It has been a great year. This will be the last emai of 2010 from Pipe Dream. Next year promises to be just as exciting. We will relaunch and shove off in May heading North to the Shetland and Orkynes.Then over to Bergan and down the Norweigian Coast to Sweden and Denmark. Then into the Baltic.Back out through the Gota Canal to Germany and Holland and Brussels. We will then cruise the French Coast and head South to Portugal and Spain. I expect the end of next year to see us in the Canary Islands or the Cape Verdes. 

Inishmore 53 07n 9 40w. Saturday we explored Galway. Saw the Spanish Arch
which is part of the town wall dating back to the Spanish Armada. Mary got
her Claddagh Ring bought at Dillons--Irelands oldest jeweler. On shop street
every pub overflowed and had spontaneous music called Seisiun. Steve and
melissa caught a bus for Dublin. Mary and I are now alone with a 1000 miles
to go. She read about the Spanish Armada that lost 27 ships in sept gales in
1588. 2000 sailors drowned and 3000 more got ashore only to be slaughtered.
As to sept gales, we awoke Sun to a gale warning due later in the day. But
the morning was so nice and the Tide gates would not stay open past high
tide. So I left for Inishmore and made it in deteriorating weather. Yachts
are not allowed in the small harbor so we tied to a visitors mooring. But
not on the first pass. Mary on the bow lost her dark glasses on the first
pass and the boat hook on the second. On the third she got the bow line
through the mooring ring but then cleated the wrong end of the line and it
slipped overboard. The 4th time was a charm. I'm proud of her. I had
planed to dingy ashore but high wind and rain made launching the dingy with
2 people impossible. Ashore is the ancient fortress of Dun Aengus on a high
cliff edge. Stone age stuff accessed by jaunting carriage. But today the
gale blows on. We are prisoners below and the 48 hour forcast says strong
gale wind force 9. Spanish Armada stuff. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

The gale with rain blew all night. 0700 was decision time. Weather report
good, wind down to 15, rain replaced by fog. 100nm to Galway where the
Horwitz's need to be to get home. So we left. The seas were ugly but
improved as the wind died. The fog stayed all day. Fall is here and winter
is coming. It was a 14 hour day under power at high rpm. The high point was
sailing close along the Cliffs of Moher--5 miles of 600ft high beauty. Steve
has bragged that all our good weather is due to his karma. To prove his
point, the fog cleared just as we got there and closed back in as we passed.
The fact that we had drizzle fog all day escapes him. Galway harbor is
tidal protected by locks which are only open 2 hours before high tide. We
got there 1 hour late. A 14 ft tide ment we could not stay and so now we are
out on a big ship mooring---comfortable. We will get in tomorrow at 0530
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Derrynane is a national park. The only entrance is VERY narrow with white
water on either side. No room to turn around if you are not happy with your
approach. On 8 Sept we left for Dingle. Again a power out into rough water
but ending in lovely sail. Dingle may be the epicenter of Irish tourism.
Buses stop here by the dozen. On the way here we passed Skellig Michael a
vertical piece of rock. Its a world heritage sight inhabited by monks from
the 12th centry to the 16th. The jetty was lashed by 10 ft swells and was no
place for Pipe Dream. Then the 600 steps cut into the rock held little
appeal. But here in Dingle we has a snug marina and a dozen pubs all with
intertainment. Mary loved last night with dancing and singing. Tonight is
yet another gale and so we will weather it out in a pub
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In our inland driving tour Mary got to kiss the Blarney Stone on top of the
castle. We all toured Killarney Park in a horse drawn cart--called jaunting.
The Titanic Lusitania museum at Cobh was special. Cobh was Titanics last
port of call and the Lusitania was torpedoed 11 miles away. A new gale cut
our sail from Kinsale sort. We hid in Castletownshed. The first rain fell as
we anchored and before dark it was blowing 30. It passed in the night, so we
dinged ashore in the morning to explore the small town. On the 6th we pushed
on into 16 knot headwind with power. The sea was rough thanks to last nights
gale. Fastnet rock was rounded for a photo op. So rough that it was hard to
focus. This is the most southern point of our trip. And marked leaving the
Irish Sea going into the Atlantic. Sail up at last we romped into Bantry Bay
for the night. Today tue the 7th we powered down the Bantry coast to its
head. Then again hoisted sail to the protected Derrynane Harbour. This is
not the END of the world. No Butts about it--this is a lovely spot where we
have recouped reading and sleeping. 51 46n 10 09w
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The sail down from Dublin took 2 days. 2 days of good sailing with the 1
night quietly anchored under Saltee Island. On the radio we heard the coast
guard answer a call for help by someone who barely spoke english. The nature
of the problem was "the thing in the water that goes round and round is not
there". A helicopter was sent to find them and then direct a cutter to them.
We could see them with Jap eyes. When the cutter relieved the helicopter, it
came over to us and hovered beside us at masthead level. As we reached along
at 9 kts they took photos of us. Several pods of dolphins played by our bow
delighting the girls. Kinsale is a lovely village and the YC has made us
welcome. Ron Holland is here. This should be the best of Ireland. I have
rented a car. We will spend 4 days here and drive to Killarney, Cork, and
Cobh
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