Greystones - the Good the Bad and the Ugly

Days 36 and 37

We left Dun Laoghaire  at 14.30 yesterday (6 July) for the two hour trip to Greystones. We caught the tide which helped us through the small gap between Dalkey island and the mainland. We had forgotten it was the Regatta and there was a fleet of about 50 boats out on the water which was great to see.

The two hour trip wasn't unpleasant and the coastline was quite interesting, but the auto helm broke about an hour into the journey. So Josh and Roy spent some time when we got in taking the ram to pieces. It may be possible to do a temporary fix but we can't get the part until we get home. Our model is discontinued now so it isn't easy to get spares apart from on e-bay and of course they can't deliver to us as we are on the move. We do have a wind steering system so we may be able to use that instead for our 16 hour crossing on Monday night.

Entrance to Greystones
 We had heard mixed reports about Greystones, some people had warned us not to go, but others had said it was OK. We were keen to see for ourselves what it was like and this is where the good, the bad and the ugly comes in.

Mary on the lovely Lavender Walk into the village

Me with the Beach House pub in the background
The good...everyone is friendly and welcoming. They are making an effort to make the marina into a first class facility but still some way to go. We did find a nice pub last night, the Beach House, with some live music. There is a fish and chip shop which looked nice but we didn't sample it as we ate on board.

Greystones Marina Office
The bad...it's so expensive here, we have never paid nearly £50 a night anywhere else on our whole trip since we started in 2017. We also have to pay a minimum of E3.50 for electricity!! The showers look lovely but the doors won't lock, there is nowhere to put clothes etc whilst showering and no hairdryers or anywhere to plug your own one in.

The abandoned Marina Village project

The ugly...the unfinished concrete block of flats. This project has apparently been abandoned because of Brexit, what a shame. The marina office is also ugly, what do you think?

So that's my assessment of Greystones!! As my Mum would say, fur hat and no knickers, in other words trying to look smart and put on a show but when you look underneath not quite living up to the facade!!

The future for Greystones.






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