The sea was calm and Inishvickillane was almost lost in the hazy distance far beyond Slea Head yesterday as news broke over west Kerry that its favourite adopted son had slipped away peacefully that morning at his home in Kinsealy.
The news that Charlie Haughey had died was greeted with sadness along the Dingle Peninsula, no where more so than at Páidí Ó Sé's pub in Ventry where a large framed photograph of "The Boss" looks down on the bar.
"I got to know him in the mid-70s," recalled Páidí. "We used to call out to him after the All-Irelands - he was always a big fan of Kerry and the way we used to apply ourselves.
"The friendship really got going when I took over Krugers - his house was being constructed on Inishvickillane at the time - he used to land at Dunquin and come over to the pub - we had many a great afternoon together."
Páidí reckoned that Charlie Haughey felt connected in a special way with West Kerry. "He always chilled out when he came here - he always left any hassle he had behind; the baggage that followed him in Dublin stayed there when he came down here."
Back in Dingle amid the bustle of tour buses and the cacophony of foreign accents on the quayside, English visitors Raymond Richards and Ron Rennison from the Wirral were admiring the memorial to Mr Haughey commissioned by Dingle fishermen.
"He had an association with the area," explained local fisherman John Brosnan to the two Englishmen as he tried to weigh down a bouquet of flowers that the fishermen had placed at the base of the pierside memorial upon hearing of Mr Haughey's death.
"He was a great friend to the people of Dingle. He poured €4 to €5 million into the development of the harbour - the harbour was dredged, a new pier was built and a 60-berth marina provided. Without Charlie Haughey, Dingle would have nothing."
It is a sentiment echoed by Mr Haughey's good friends, Michael Francie O'Sullivan and former senator Tom Fitzgerald who were both deeply saddened when news broke yesterday of the death of the former taoiseach.
"I spoke to him three weeks ago," said Michael Francie. "It was a shock when he died. We had a great friendship for over 40 years. God be good to the man and He will be good to him."
Tom Fitzgerald recalled first meeting Charlie Haughey in the mid-1950s when he was helping with the promotion of a local angling competition and they met on a boat and got talking about patriot Thomas Ashe from Tom's home place of Lispole.
The friendship deepened over the years and endured throughout the politically turbulent years following the Arms Crisis, with Mr Haughey remaining a faithful attender at the Dingle Regatta and a regular visitor to West Kerry.
"I remember asking him once why he liked Kerry so much," recalled Tom. "He told me that it was because the people here are different. 'They're mountain men and they're rugged, they're honest and they're loyal,' he said to me.
"I remember once him meeting my mother-in-law and talking in Irish to her and afterwards I asked her what did she reckon and she said 'Tá uaisleacht eigean ag baint leis' and that summed him up, 'uaisleacht' - grace and generosity."