An Irish Cruise

(The waiting area for the ferry is right beside the old ESB chimneys. Look at that beautiful blue sky! All is well here…)

We’re on the road again! It’s been a while. Lots happened since the last trip, I’ll talk about those another time. But now it’s Friday 17th April 2026 and we have just arrived in France. It’s been close to two years since we were here, as I said lots happened. And when we booked this trip we had the great idea of taking a ferry from Dublin instead of our usual further south departure point from Rosslare. This was not the great idea we had thought it was going to be. One of the things that happened since our last trip was we moved house, closer to Rosslare and further from Dublin. It seems great ideas don’t always stand up to real life… here’s the story:

(We’re ready to leave…)

Our ferry was due to leave Dublin at 4.30pm on Wednesday 15th and although the fuel protests had stopped we thought it prudent to get on the road early. Then en route we got a text to say the departure would be delayed due to inclement weather. Oh dear god. This was a complicate message for me to hear. I do not do well with inclement weather on a ferry. And if there is going to be bad weather, I don’t want to hear about it, I want to hear it’s going to be fine. I bought some chocolate and started eating it to make everything better. It didn’t help but here we are. Anyways, there I was way too early at Dublin port eating chocolate. In the past we have travelled to France, indirectly, via the UK (and the channel tunnel) from Dublin port but this was the first time to take the direct Dublin to Cherbourg route…

(That longest yellow line was us…)

As we waited we noticed straight ahead of us a huge ship, this was going to be fine. The bigger the ship, the less weather affects the passengers, right? Yes, in fact it was going to be great. Then Denis pointed out one small detail, at the very top of the ship, its name, Ulysses. Didn’t our tickets say it was the Inisfree? And that’s when I noticed a much much smaller ship to our right. Nooo! Yes. Yes, there it was, the Inishfree. The Ulysses was going on a short hop to Holyhead and our tiny ship was going to France. I started back on the chocolate.

(Picture through a saltwater soaked window at the front of the ship. Doesn’t it look a bit spooky? The chimneys knew what awaited us…)

Stop, it was going to be fine, these ship travel every week, maybe a few times a week, how bad could it be? Says no one. The Inisfree left Dublin, slowly, at 9pm. The captain explained that we were on our way but due to the weather we would have to travel very slowly down the Irish Sea by the coast (past Rosslare!) We would reach the Celtic Sea by 6am where we would meet the storm from the Atlantic. But as soon as we passed Land’s End (tip of England pointing towards America) the storm would be behind us. That didn’t sound too bad to me… Somehow I had interpreted his words to mean the storm would be over by 6am. Well that’s grand then, I’m very tired, I’ll go to bed, fall asleep and miss everything. Brilliant.

(Location a bit vague… this was after passing Land’s End)

I did eventually come to enjoy the captain’s messages and his sincere and calm way of giving us difficult news but when I woke at 5.30am to the noise of things falling off shelves, I hated him and his tiny ship. (By the way, when travelling by ferry, never put anything on shelves when the captain says the weather might be stormy.) My water bottle was rolling around on the floor - more about that later and our toothpaste was under the bad but I didn’t know about any of these things until later because I could not lift my head off the pillow without feeling nauseas. (Note: the word sea is hidden in nauseas for a reason.) I lay back down repeating a meditation mantra I had heard was good but never tried… until now, when death seemed imminent.

I was feeling calmer and even remembered choosing REST as an intention for this trip. And here I was resting on my little bunk and could do so all day if necessary. This was going to be ok. But then at 8.30am Denis woke up. Some information about Denis: he does not get seasick (obviously not as sensitive as I). Also, he loves to celebrate the first day of a trip with a full Irish or British breakfast… Of course there was no way he’d want that in this storm… would he? He would. I didn’t want breakfast but wait, I didn’t feel terrible, maybe a mint tea or is it ginger? Oh what about some ginger nut biscuits? Ok, this is totally fine, I can do this. I raise my head slowly - it’s not great to be honest. But I persevere. Denis passes my clothes. I can definitely dress myself very, very slowly from a sitting position. What’s this? Asks Denis, picking my dripping trousers up from the floor.

Do you remember the water bottle earlier, rolling around the floor? It had managed to empty itself while at the same time my trousers having fallen to the floor in exactly the same spot, mopped up the water. They were sopping. Now, although I had packed more than one trousers for this trip they were all locked away in the van, on the car deck, also locked. I had nothing else to wear. Denis looked at me and I looked at him, we were both thinking of solutions. It slowly dawned on me that there was only one solution. Denis offered to go up for breakfast and afterwards come back and give me his trousers so I could go up for my tea and ginger biscuits… Although I did think long and hard about that option (no I did not) my option (also not ideal) would have to do. And that is why I set off to the restaurant wearing my pyjamas bottoms. Mortified.

(That’s me in my pjamas sipping water. Yes… Denis has a Guinness)

But that was the least of my worries. The journey to the restaurant was like something from a scary Disney ride where the floor moves under your feet and you have to hold the railings. I don’t like scary Disney rides. We make it to the top of the stairs. Where a new scary thing happens, I smell the food. Nooooo. The tea and ginger nut biscuit dream evaporates. You know they say just look at the horizon and you’ll be grand, your body will work out what’s happening? I turned left away from the food to the lounge with the windows looking towards the horizon and no food. But the horizon was tilting at completely freakish angles. My body was not working this out. It has a different plan. It seems to want me to… how shall I put this…clear the system. I didn’t like that plan. This has to stop, I try the meditation, I stare at the horizon, I breathe. My body starts to calm and I feel ok. But not ok enough to take my eyes off the horizon. Freakish or not it is my saviour. Denis! I will be stuck in this room - for ever and ever.

(Sea up, Sea down. I could NOT take photos during the main storm so this an indication of normal rolling. Freakish is much much worse)

Denis has a new idea. Great, because I can’t think… I will go off and get my breakfast and bring you tea and biscuits or maybe porridge, afterwards? No, no, don’t mention food. I come up with an idea. A few more looks at the horizon, then I’ll close my eyes and imagine it while you bring me back to the room. I want to lie down flat in the dark. No food. No mention of food! We do that - of course I don’t trust him enough to keep my eyes closed but I do make it to my bunk while he goes for breakfast. Yes, he has the full Irish! I asked him about it only when we were on solid ground because I couldn’t bear to hear about it before then. It must be great for him to be so insensitive (that’s the opposite to sensitive like me, right?)

By now the captain was back on again with another one of his messages. The storm would continue until we got past Land’s End, just 6 more hours! Oh and we’d be arriving in Cherbourg at 1.30am, just 5 hours after the recent planned arrival and 11 hours after the first planned arrival. And with that he promised to be back to talk to us in the afternoon.

(That blue dot is us after we pass Land’s End)

Sleep would be good, lights off, eye mask secured, night, night. Denis woke me when he got back from breakfast then he fell fast asleep full and happy. Not the first time I’ve thought - isn’t it grand for him? But I fell back to sleep too so I stopped thinking badly of him. Time passed and about 3pm the captain had a new message. Good news - we have rounded Land’s End and the side to side rolling will ease. Bad news - because we are going so slow - for your comfort and safety - we will not make it to Cherbourg before the port closes but we will make it by the time it opens again at 6.30am. Good news - dinner will be served in about 90 minutes I hope you are feeling more comfortable now and apologies for the delay, your comfort and safety is our main concern. Dinner? Are you joking? Guess who was ready for dinner? Yes, Denis. But as the rolling had eased I was happy to go too and search out the mint tea and ginger biscuit. Of course there was still the problem of the wet trousers. Yup, I went back to the restaurant in my pjs. The tea and biscuits were delicious. I was hungry. When dinner was served Denis shared some of his battered cod and chips with me and it was delicious.

(Very nice fish and chips with mushy peas)

Just one more sleep and we’d be off this ship, right? Another captain’s message after dinner - yes everything looking good for a 6.30am docking at Cherbourg in the morning. His next message woke us at 5.30am to say we were just outside the port and all going well we would be disembarking in 35 minutes. And we were. The one (and the only) advantage of a smaller ship is that there’s not a lot of queueing to get onto the car deck when it opens. The sun was rising as we drove off the ship. We are in France. I have learned a few things: 1. Be a bit more specific about what I wish for… 2. I can survive a stormy sea journey. 3. I like the kind of direct communication our captain used. I thought I needed him to pretend everything was going to be okay. Maybe shutting down is unnecessary when you can do hard things.

Mairead x