We are starting to get a feel for the villages of Ireland, and we like them. There is a quiet tempo to these areas, a softness, which we find appealing. And if the weather is mostly atrocious, it partially redeems itself with occasional bursts of sunshine.

Bantry is what we would call a market village, where the locals come to shop and do business. It is not highly praised in the tourist guides, but for the cruiser it has the conveniences of a larger town, without the population density. A great base from which to settle in and explore if you are just arriving from Greenland, the East Coast of North America, or the Azores.

You can anchor tucked in close to Widdy Island, with protection from most winds, and watch the sheep being worked.

The hops between anchorages are short within Bantry Bay, typically just a few miles. The countryside looks very, well, Irish.

We started seeing these birds about half way across the Atlantic from Greenland. They have enormous wing spans, easily six or seven feet (two meters) and are very graceful aviators. Subsequently we learned they are gannets, up from Africa on summer holiday.

Passages along the southern Irish coast are short, with a variety of anchorages from which to choose. Although the summer cruising season is over we are still seeing a few cruising yachts, like this French vessel with a bare aluminum hull.

The village of Baltimore is just down the coast from Bantry Bay, past Fastnet Rock. Set within a complex of bays it offer this medieval beacon to welcome you through the entrance.

There was a junior regatta taking place at the Baltimore Sailing Club when we arrived and we are not sure who was having more fun, the competitors or their parents watching from the pubs ashore.

Baltimore is primarily a vacation village for folks from Cork. The restaurants and pubs, and a small grocery/convenience store in the town square are just a few steps from the harbor. Three hundred fifty permanent residents see their ranks swell to a thousand or so during the summer.

Baltimore has the requisite castle, this one begun in the 12th century. The O’Donnell clan used it as a base for raiding their cousins up the coast. In particular they liked to go to Waterford. The raidees in turn became raiders and retaliated. Good for keeping the blood boiling and population under control. The castle lay in ruins for three hundred years, and was purchased by the present owners about ten years ago. With state assistance on funding it has been rebuilt. Part of the deal for this help is the owners, who live here now, have to keep it open for visitors. Note the blue skies in the background.

The harbors all have tidal "slips". They look like launching ramps, which is how they are primarily used now. But you can also haul out – using them as we would a grid.

This yacht has its own "legs" to keep it upright (which also help on shallow tidal rivers).

Speaking of boats, this is one of the Irish Life Boats – self righting of course. They have quite a different shape than the US Coast Guard motor life boats. There is less of a planing surface forward and they do not chine steer as badly as the USCG MLBs when running in a big sea. We’ve been told that these are the same design as the English use, and are due for replacement, with newer, faster designs in the next few years.

While we were in Baltimore we met a visitor who told us the proprietor of the local mini-market was also the diesel supplier, and had really good prices. We went ashore, checked, and were offered a price of 0.63 Euro per liter. This pencils out to just over US$1 per liter, or about $3.80 per US gallon excluding VAT (which we get refunded upon departure from the country). Needless to say, we filled our capacious tanks to the brim as this is about half of the best prices we have heard further East in the UK and Europe.

The fuel may be a good deal, but the restaurants are pricey. Maybe they figure they need to make a year’s wages during the summer. We checked out one menu which offered lobster for 60 Euro (about $85 US).

We figured we could do better on Wind Horse with Canadian crab salad, part of the inventory we picked up in Labrador.

We spent a night at anchor in a fresh gale, with lots of rain to fill the water tanks (again), and then the next morning watched this French single hander heading home to go back to work. He is sailing a seven meter (22 foot) powerful little sloop. He figures to stop in the Scilly Isles off the bottom of England to rest up, before the last few miles across the English Channel to France. That last leg, crossing the Channel traffic lanes, is akin to dodging cars crossing a busy street.

A short dinghy ride from Baltimore is this abandoned monastery. Seems like the English King, Henry Vlll, got into a tussle with the Pope and ordered the various Catholic church facilities closed during the 16th century.

Our English friends have promised a dry, sunny autumn, if we visit. So, we are off to Falmouth shortly.