We expected to head out and take the 11 Am tour but it was still cloudy but it was expected to clear up later in the day. So Sheila and I headed out to Laurence the captain of the Lady Rebel and owner of Dingle Ahoy Boat Trips. There were many Fungie tours run by bigger charter companies but we liked Laurence when we came across his booth on Monday and decided to go with him.
We loved the fact that passenger capacity was limited to 12 people and his cost was only 16 Euro per person for an hour to an hour and a half tour of Dingle Bay. Some of the other charters cost up to 60 Euro. Though the time on the boat was longer we saw some of those boats and they were packed to the gills.
Laurence had another tour running at 2PM which is when the sun was supposed to make an appearance. We told him we would be back and headed off, we stopped in a few shops then back to our room to rest.
When we headed back we found out we were the only two passengers on the boat which was fine by us, though we did feel bad. With the cost of gas and time more than the 32 Euros we paid. Laurence was happy to take us out.
Let me tell you about Laurence, he was a commercial fisherman for many years out on the trawlers for long period of time. He missed being home at night so about 4 years ago he bought the Lady Rebel and opened Dingle Ahoy Boat Trips. During the season he has 3-4 people working for him, they mange the passengers and he captain's the boat. At the beginning he also was a music teacher.
He was an extremely nice man, and had a great pair of blue eyes. He could have been considered handsome if not for his dental hygiene issues which we have seen a lot in Ireland. I have seen many a handsome man in Ireland and then they smile or talk and it is so disappointing.
Laurence took us out and we found Fungie with no problem. Sheila and I laughed as those bigger charters had full boats and everyone was crowding to the rails to get pictures, the boat was listing so far to the left we thought it was tip over. Sheila and I had the whole boat to ourselves and we were loving it.
After we spent time with Fungie, Laurence gave us a tour of the harbor and as he said, gave us his spiel of certain landmarks. His voice was pleasant and I am hoping that I can piece together a video of his spiel. He was so kind as the water was really choppy when we stopped to look at certain things always asking if we were okay. I had no problem,. Sheila might or might not have lost her footing and landed a little hard on the lifeboat capsule.
Tour done, we thanked Laurence and tipped him 20 Euros as we did feel bad that it was just the two of us. It was off to find food and Sheila had noticed a place that had Beef and Guinness Pie. So we stopped at the Dingle Pub. I have to say that was the first time that Sheila and I were not impressed with our food. The fish was over cooked and the Beef and Guinness pie was not what Sheila expected.
As I think the choppy seas and the rich food hit Sheila a little so we headed back to the room to rest and get ready for our night out. We decided to do an Irish Pub crawl in hopes of finding some really great music.
I'll tell you about our Frenchman playing Brittany music in an Irish Pub in my next post.