the search

so off i set to the west coast of ireland in search of my new home.hiring a car from cork airport,i headed west arriving in castletownbere,2 hours and one speeding fine later.there were several boats laid up here,most of them too large,though one boat,the una alan,a boat that fished out of dunmore where i lived years ago i was interested in.however she had a bad leak and her engine had got flooded,so passed it up,shame,she was a fine boat.i heard after she committed suicide on the way to be broken up,sinking somewhere.after castletown i headed north,checking out all the harbours along the way,stopping at dingle,home of fungi the dolphin a few days later then on again.at westport i found a lovely old scotch built trawler laid up in the river.she reminded me of a boat i worked on years ago,the ocean breeze,she was called the girl jane.i wanted her.the owner ,a lovely old man called paddy would sell her no problem.he had planned to convert her himself ,but never got round to it.90 percent sure i would have her i travelled on just to see what else was on offer,eventually arriving at killybegs in the northwest,after 10 days of wandering about.and so it seemed all i would have to do is buy the boat from paddy, wait for a window of good weather,grab a mate or 2 from dunmore and steam home.however a quick phone call to penzance harbourmaster changed everything,he had no room and wasnt likely too for 12 months,newlyn harbour was a flat refusal.so i went home fed up indeed!