( Overview
/ Two Bullocks on a Boat Go West
Leaving Schull, with Mount Gabriel behind. As we’re hardcore sailors we thought today was a good day to sail around Fastnet Rock!
Flat seas and a light southerly wind.
Copper Point lighthouse on the east end of Long Island was built in 1864.
We sailed for a while, but the wind then dropped.
The calm seas made spotting porpoises easy, and they even interrupted their fishing to swim over to investigate what we were up to.
Lots of bird life too.
The distinctive rock and lighthouse lies 4 miles southwest of Cape Clear Island.
The tallest lighthouse in Ireland, Fastnet stands 54 metres high; it is the second to be built on the rock, the first being constructed in 1854, and this one in 1897. The first lighthouse proved to be too weak in gales, and the light not sufficiently powerful.
It is the most southerly point of Ireland.
In Irish ‘Carraig Aonair’ meaning Lone Rock, but it’s also called Ireland’s Teardrop because it was the last part of Ireland 19th century emigrants saw as they sailed to America.
Fastnet Rock is used as the midpoint of the classic offshore 700 mile race from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, which then heads back to Plymouth or Cherbourg.
On a day like today it’s hard to imagine the unexpected storm which wreaked havoc on the third day of the Fastnet race in 1979. 75 of the 303 boats capsized, resulting in 19 fatalities, and the rescue operation became the largest ever in peace-time.
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