Left Schull as the rain closed in and the southerly wind built up, aiming for the inside passage to Baltimore, which John said was called the Postman’s Entrance.
There are two ways to reach it, one outside the islands in the bay and the other more tortuous rote on the inside. I miscalculated the speed with which the waves would build in the bay so we ended up slamming through a short choppy sea for an hour until we got back in the lee of Cape Clear, where it settled down, and we looked for the narrow and circuitous route into Baltimore’s big and very sheltered bay. Wish I had taken the rocky inside route.
Picked up a buoy, lunched, moved to the pontoon, ashore for drinks with Johanna and John.
Baltimore harbourmaster found us an overnight mooring – boat was heaving a bit on the pontoon, which has shrunk compared with the one shown in the pilot book. They did not seem to have added the usual summer extension to it.
Passage notes: 10 miles, max wind S 6, min S 4, heavy almost breaking swells when exposed to ocean, calm once on inside passage, visibility less than half a mile, rain. Should have taken the time to plan a passage west of the inner islands, which is much more sheltered, though more complicated.
tide by tide 