The Night Crossing to England at Fishguard from Rosslare Ireland
Mrs. O'Leary dropped us off at the restaurant overlooking the port. We had ample time for dinner before the ferry began the Night Crossing to England at Fishguard from Rosslare. We dined elegantly our last night in Ireland. Having traveled over to Ireland on a ferry in the lounge area we thought the idea of a cabin sounded much better so we booked one. It was a real treat to be able to retire to our own private little space. There were two twin beds across from each other and a small sitting space with a porthole to look out at the sea - the Irish Sea. By 9:00 p.m., the sailing time, we were ready to retire after our long walk on the beach at Mrs. O'Leary's Farm House B&B. It wasn't long until our ship began to roll with the waves. Just enough to activate my motion sickness sensors and it wasn't long before I was dreadfully nauseous. It was a night of a full moon and it was lighting up the cabin almost light enough to read by. I found that sitting and looking out the porthole reduced the nausea a bit so I found myself watching the waves in the moonlight. What a beautiful scene. Sometime around midnight a ship passed by under sail and the sails were lit up by the moon. There was a tiny red lantern on the aft and a small porthole shown light from inside a small cabin on the deck. Other than that there were no lights coming from the ship. It was so close, if there had been men on board I could have almost seen their faces. Lit by the moon it was an eerie sight - something for another era. The night passed slowly. About 2:00 a.m. in the morning another ship passed by to the south of us. It was a large cruise ship or perhaps another ferry but it seemed to dwarf our ship - three or four times as large. It passed by silently with rows and columns of lit portholes making yellow dots in the night. It was eerie quiet to see something so big float by so close and yet no sound. It was about this time that I crawled back into bed and though Still a bit ill finally fell asleep through pure exhaustion. In the morning the haunting images of the ship crossing in the night under a full moon were still vivid in my mind as they are to this day. At Fishguard we disembarked and caught a train to London. It was a trip across Wales before sun up and I must say it was a gorgeous landscape indeed. |
