Crossing to Ireland

As predicted the wind died off overnight leaving just heavy rain, but Tuesday morning dawned damp but dry! The only problem was the wind which was predicted as from the south west exactly the direction in which we were heading. We decided that we would have to motor if necessary as the tides in this area are so strong that we couldn't risk being swept too far south  whilst trying to maintain a sailable course.

We left Stranraer at about 9am just as the sun was coming out and managed a lovely sail up the lock with the aim of catching a south tidal eddy close inshore before the main tide turned giving us about 7 hours of favourable tide. The tides in this area are really strong and although we were going across them we were still hoping to be swept south to make the entrance to Belfast Lough.

As predicted the wind settled into a WSW 3/4 and the sea settled down under motor we were making a steady 5K over the ground and to make things better the sun was shining! Slowly the coast of Scotland turned misty grey and the misty grey coastline of Northern Island began to turn green. The Stena ferry passed us on her way to Belfast and watching her progress showed us very clearly the way into Belfast Lough and comfortingly proved we were going the right way!

After a last Scottish lunch of warm bridies (I've developed quite a liking for these Scottish pasties) we had almost crossed the North Channel and were closing quite quickly on the Irish coast watching rain showers marching across the Mull of Kintyre. From a distance the showers look like dull grey curtains hanging from the heavy grey clouds and we could see them envelop areas of coastline and then pass on leaving the misty coastline visible again. Feeling quite smug under the blue skies we watched them for a while until we realised that one of these showers was heading our way! I ducked below but the skipper was doused for about 5 minutes and then it all cleared up and we motored in to Bangor harbour in glorious sunshine!

The forecast for the next few days was not looking good so we booked ourselves into Bangor for two days but as we were checking the boat after the trip the skipper noticed a recurrence of an engine problem that we had when we first got this boat. The problem manifests itself by the engine suddenly dumping all of its coolant into the bilges - luckily on this occasion only about 500ml had overflowed into the overflow vessel but had we kept the engine running for much longer we would have been draining antifreeze out of the bilge. Having had the problem before we knew exactly what the problem was - something to do with a blocked exhaust elbow (?!) - so we needed an engineer. The marina very helpfully put us in contact with a chap who although really busy promised to help.

Following a day of gales today has arrived bright and sunny and the engineer has been and removed the offending elbow from the engine and will be treating it to a bath in nitric acid tonight. Hopefully that will do the trick and we will be able to refit it and be on our way - although it looks as if we will be here for an extra day as there is another F7/8 forecast!! Never mind I intend to make good use of the time with a trip into Belfast by train and continue my sampling of Guinness and local whiskey.