A sunday in Kilkee

Another sunday basking in sunny Kilkee

Looks calm in the harbour:

Che watching over the boat..

 Incoming waves:

Incoming Waves

Seagull basking in the sun:

At least some are undisturbed by the rowdy sea

 Back from the dive:

Aughinish back to shore

 
 Pier view:

Enjoying the view from the pier

     Wave coming:

Incoming

     Gone for a swim:

gone for a swim...

  The Joker:

Boat: The Joker

  Nobody jumping today:

The boards...

Pollock Hole Swimmer drying off :

After the swim

A small note, to say there is a wonderful book:

 Kilkee Moments ( http://www.kilkeemoments.ie/ ) available in bookstore, which proceeds are going to the Kilkee Rescue Center.

Later a bit further north the coast, Waves in Doonberg Golf Beach :

Doonberg

Electric Picnic 2012 - Day 3

On the final day, I spent a lot more time in the Body & soul area, enjoying the sun, starting with a concert from Eleventy-four - which I had previously seen in Bourkes. An amazing choir entertained us in the afternoon, before I catch up with some Tipperary friends.

Marking the end of 3 beautiful days 

Eleventy-four on Body & Soul main stage

Elbow

Main Stage .. pack on sunday

Bat for lashes

the killers

The Killers

Artists Seen:

• The Killers
• Bat for lashes
• Elbow
• Dublin Gospel Choir
• The Bambit
• Eleventy four

Electric Picnic 2012 - Day 2

On the second day I had my eye on the cure who did not disappoint me.
The day started very well with a full string orchestra playing the full "Dark Side of the moon" in a stunning fashion, before wrapping up with some tune from Stevie Wonder.

God is an astronaut

SBKRT

The Cure

Bringing your kid to a classic

The Cure

Artists Seen:

• Trinity Orchestra
• God is an Astronaut
• Tieranniesaur
• Wild Beast
• SBKRT
• The Cure
• Bell X1

Electric Picnic 2012 - Misc

So in the end it was the best thing ever. The weather was brilliant. The bands were fantastic. I saw the Cure for the first time, along with Sigur Ros. I bumped randomly into friends once in a while of the weekend, only to loose sight of them on the crowd hours later.

Did we mention the weather was brilliant? And the people and the artist, the food....

Sorry if you weren’t there !

Violonist

The Salty Dog .... stranded

Recycling in Body & Soul

Play some tunes

Tree fruits in Body and Soul

Under the sun in body and soul

Relaxing in Body and soul

Body And Soul

The Main Stage

The logo

Electric Picnic 2012 - Day 1

So in 2012, I finally set foot in the Electric Picnic ( http://electricpicnic.ie/ ) , the yearly Irish music festival held in Stradbally Hall.
After setting camp in the morning - I arrived quite early, avoiding all the traffic, people had promised me - i went for a quick around the place, even found the salty dog.
The first band was on the main stage: Alabam Shakes ... good, but as I enter a tent I got stunned by the performance of a fuming "Willis Earl Beal".
The first day finished with the XX tremendous and an unexpected volcanic and eruptive performance from Sigur Ros to close the night.

??

Willis Earl Beal

Willis Earl Beal

Roots Manuva

The XX

Sigur Ros

Artists Seen

• Alabama Shakes
• Willis Earl Beal
• Roots Manuva
• Grizzly Bear
• Grandaddy
• The Jezabels
• ???
• The XX
• Sigur Ros
• Ed Sheeran ( only the end with a tremendous version of "Chasing Car"

Bodyboarding under the rain

Last night we headed up to Spanish Point ( Co Clare )  for a surf session, well for me it was body-boarding, as i think I have given up any up of standing up on a surfboard ...  maybe I should try the long board...

Flat calm at the moment .....

Good waves, not big and quite regular, through very steep at times. The water was warm enough, but we had to support drizzles of rain...

On the water during sunset

That was also a good opportunity to test out my new toy, a Gopro camera.

Spanish Point view from the water

Post surf, pre dinner.....

After that it was time for Dinner, and a delicious pan fried monk-fish in Milton Malbay, before going back to Limerick.

Sunday Walk : Clare Glens

Last sunday I went for a short stroll in Tipperary in the lovely river walk: Clare Glens.
It's only 30 minutes drive outside Limerick city, and perfect for family with a short and longer loop.

The bridge

Walking along the flowing river

Clare Glens

Map

Bridge...

There is many walks around Limerick, have a look at this leaflet :
http://www.southerntrail.net/maps/Limerick%20Maps%20Leaflet7.pdf.

And Bock covered some of those place some time ago. http://bocktherobber.com/2012/06/out-and-about-county-limerick/

Back in Galway from the sea

So this saturday I went back to Galway for the final in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012...
As they say the final showdown:



We used our diving club ( Aughinish ) boat to get to Galway bay. Launching the boat from Doolin, all the way up to Salthill - the race was taking place just in front of it.

We arrived around 11AM after a smooth drive - despite being against the wind and the swell, thanks to a dexterous cox -  before the sailing boat left the Galway docks.
While they were going out, we were able to get pretty close and have a good view of those ocean beasts.

Spanish Boat 

The French Boat ... winner of the overall race :D

There was many boats trying to follow the race, including the local hooker:

Galway Hooker

Then the marshall pushed us behind the yellow buoy, so the race could start... and off they went for an hour of intense action.

The race 

Camper and Groupama battling out to catch Puma

Camper and F.Cammas boat

Groupama chasing Camper

Puma... and yes we are behing the buoy :)

Puma won the race,

The winner of the in port race Puma

And after another pass near the boat, we decided to turn back to the Clare side of the bay.
We did try to get into Monks in Ballyvaughan, but a sand bank prevented our plan - and I won't say anything else about that.

It was a fast drive back to Doolin, where the Dolphin was waiting for us, with the wind pushing in our back.

In summary a very happy day at sea ! I will be following the next race ( probably won't come to Ireland this time :( )




- UPDATE -

•  The full inport race: 

• And Bock account of the race ( from a different boat ):

http://bocktherobber.com/2012/07/volvo-ocean-race-2012/


- UPDATE -
My diving club account of the event: http://www.aughinishdivingclub.com/news/170-volvo-ocean-race