Picos de Europe and Leon

The alarm went off at 4am, but my own internal clock had already kicked in, knowing had to be up at a certain time, and thinking of the trip ahead

-  Will Leahy

This morning in late August, we were on the bikes by 5am for the run to the 8am Rosslare sailing. Both on a BMW RT, of differing years (2010 and 2016), which were fully fuelled the night before, so no stops until we hit the port, refill, tea, and into the queue to check in. We thought we had lots of time to play with but, just outside the port, traffic was on a full-stop.

There were three boats leaving within half-an-hour of each other, and it was chaotic. A small mistake on my part, I kept the bike running as we tried to duck and dive our way up the queue, and as my bike is aircooled, suddenly the red oil light started to flash as the RT overheated, but no such problems for my father's newer liquid-cooled machine. Trying to remedy the situation, I switched the bike off, but with a sinking stomach, on trying to restart, it took an age to catch; I was thinking we were scuppered before we even left Irish soil! Thankfully, car owners in our line, on explanation, understood our trouble, got us up and past the traffic and on to the boat sharpish.

The sailing was hassle-free, and bang on time. We met a few others on the boat that we knew, so the overnight passed in a flash, chatting, road stories... the craic, as we say in Ireland.