There is one thing that stands out about the day ex-hurricane Ophelia hit.

Salt.

You could taste it on your lips, feel it on your skin and smell it all around the area. The house and yard are about 400m from the Atlantic and are the first buildings on the skyline from the southeast. I’m not a fan of southeasterly winds because of this.

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The area from the old head of Kinsale west as far as Toe Head and roaring Water Bay bore the brunt of Ophelia. We are well used to dealing with southwesterly winds but dealing with strong gales from both sides is rare.

Sunday evening was eerily calm when I went to feed the stock near the village. You could clearly hear neighbours talk in the still air. I got an email from a cousin in Louisiana to say the news of Ophelia was making the front page of newspapers over there. That gave me a jolt. When a storm in Ireland makes the headlines in the gulf states of the US you sit up and take note. That night, I was rather restless.

Would everything be alright?

Have I everything secured?

Is there anything more I can do?

I got out early on Monday morning and tidied up and tied down a bit more around the yard. It was warmer than usual and the gales picked up as the morning went on.

You couldn’t but marvel at the power of nature but at the same time you felt empty at the thought of all the wreck it was causing. Thankfully, this wind wasn’t as destructive as storm Darwin. During those winds, I was in the calving shed when a bay of the roof was blown over the field. Slates from the dwelling house were flung over 100m into the field. There was little structural damage this time but Ophelia was different. It strained you mentally. There was no let up in gales for over 15 hours. I thought it was cleared by about three but an hour later it had swung around to the southwest threatening the yard near the village and taking with it a piece of roof.

Monday night was another sleepless night. I was dreading getting a knock on the door to say there was a roof of a shed blocking the road. Thankfully, this didn’t materialise and Tuesday was calm. Through local radio the extent of the damage became known.

Life returns to normal

Power returned on Wednesday afternoon with phone coverage coming back 24 hours later. With little or no phone coverage from Clonakilty to Skibbereen until Thursday. While frustrating in some ways, it was pleasant to take a break from social media.

What was going on elsewhere didn’t matter. My world became smaller and the pace of life slowed down. You had to drive to people to see if they were alright. I’m glad I wasn’t depending on an electric car last week.

Local hotels were very busy with people calling for food, their gyms were accessed too for showers and plug points were like gold dust for charging phones.

I’ll have to focus on the cleanup now, especially with a new venture on the horizon. West Cork Farm Tours was launched last week. It consists of five family farms and three hotels in the locality. With increased tourist numbers, we want to show them how we produce food, the standards we adhere to and our local areas.