Asgard success!

 What a beautiful day - clear skies, gentle breeze and glorious sunshine.  Roger was first off the boat, heading for the Poolbeg Park Run which, unusually, began at 9.30.  I followed about half an hour later for a walk run towards the Poolbeg - an imposing lighthouse at the end of the peninsula.  As I was on my way back, just past the finish of the Park Run, I saw Roger running very strongly towards me so I turned round to meet him.  He got first in his new age category (75-79!) which was well deserved.  At the end we chatted to the Sanctuary Running Group who are neither a charity nor a political group, but people who love running and have committed to running with immigrants who love running - a lovely group of people (and many of them rather fast).  

We came back to the boat for a second breakfast and a shower and were very grateful that Paul, a local DOGBA member, had tracked down and bought a gas cyclinder for us to replace the one that ran out during the birthday dinner cooking.  Rachel and Alan have hired a car to visit the countryside today, so Mike, Roger and I caught the tram into Dublin centre to have a second attempt at visiting Agard - success! The museum was open.  It was a very worthwhile visit.  There is nothing particularly special about the boat itself (although it is rather lovely) but the significance is its history. In 1914, a few months before the start of WW1, Erskine Childers (author of Riddle of the Sands)  together with his wife Molly and three other crew, made an arduous journey to collect rifles and ammunition from Germany to arm the Republicans in Ireland. It was an arduous voyage and I was particularly interested in reading an excerpt from the log written on the journey, which described their trip from Dartmouth through to Milford Haven - the same journey we made.  They also had head winds but with no engine, no Raymarine, no internet weather forecasts.  It made sobering reading.  The boat is part of the National Museum and we stayed on to visit the rooms relating to the Irish Civil War.  This is a period I knew nothing about. It seemed to me to be very tragic, that having made this brave sail to bring the guns to Ireland, Erskine Chilvers seems to have ended up on the wrong side of the Civil War and was executed by firing squad in 1922.

We are here for at least one more night, possibly more, depending on the wind.  Rachel leaves the boat tomorrow for South Africa (joining us again at Oban).  Alan is staying on and Mike will join us again.  If the weather is kind tomorrow we will have a ‘Parade of Sail’ on the Liffey, with three bridges being lifted. I suspect the local traffic may not be impressed! 

Photos of a view from my walk run and a rare Hardman selfie!