Two go Sailing

Our original intention was to leave Ardglass and head into Carlingford Lough for an evening in the sunshine! Sadly that was not to be, the weather gods had decided that this was to be a day of drizzle and mist. We left Ardglass just after 6:30 and were at the Carlingford Lough bouy by 10:30 in time to take the last of the flood tide up through the narrow entrance to the Lough. The tides in this area are interesting in that the tide floods and ebbs around the island of Ireland from both ends and the area where they meet starts at around Carlingford Lough and extends down to close to Dublin Bay. In this area the tide up and down the coast is negligible but there are still strong currents in and out of the Loughs - so we needed to ensure that if we were going to enter the Lough we did so on a flood tide - hence the early leave. We closed on the Lough entrance bouy in drizzle and poor visibility - so poor in fact that we were unable to see the Mourne mountains which was a huge disappointme...

After our enforced longer than intended stay in Bangor we were up bright and early on Sunday morning and slipping out of Bangor Marina at 5:30am. Now to some of you this will seem stupidly early but for me it was a victory! The route we had to take took us inside a small group of islands called the Copeland Isles which sit just at the  south east exit of Belfast Lough. The tide races through the narrow sound between the islands and the mainland reaching up to 5 knots so you really need to be going in the same direction as the tide as fighting it is virtually impossible. The local wisdom is that the best way to make maximum use of the south going tide is to leave Bangor marina an hour before low water push the last of the incoming tidal stream which is fairly slack at this time and then make use of the full 6 hours of the ebb tide going south. This all sounds great until you realise that on the day we were leaving low water was 4:20 am - there was no way that I was getting up for a ...

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 o...

After a day of gales and torrential rain we woke to a cloudy morning with a brisk F4/5 forecast to drop to a F4 from the NW perfect for us! So after a refuel we set off for Girvan. The pilot books warn that Girvan is one of the hardest harbours to enter on this part of the coast largely because of the shelving seabed and a bar across the harbour entrance - we felt quite at home as this is normal fare for the East Coast! We had a glorious sail along the coast watching Ailsa Craig getting ever closer- this huge lump of granite poking up from the seabed traditionally marks the start of the Firth of Clyde and sits about 16 miles out to sea opposite the entrance to Girvan harbour. We also passed the famous Turnberry golf course - it really is as close to the seashore as it looks on the TV! - and watched a small helicopter land on the lawns in front of the hotel discharging their VIP cargo - no idea who it was but we passed the time making silly guesses. We knew it couldn't have been M...

After a nice quiet evening at Port Bannatyne we left at about 10:30 the following morning for a short trip to Kip Marina at Inverkip. The skipper had arranged for a spare part to be sent to the Marina for us to collect and so we made a small detour to this large Marina with the aim of fitting the new part and getting all sorts of housekeeping jobs done. The part arrived just as arranged and the skipper spent the afternoon with his tool kit whilst I spent the afternoon in the laundry doing the washing this time. The following day was our 37th wedding anniversary so we decided to stay in Inverkip and have a celebratory meal in the Inverkip hotel - which proved to be a lovely evening. The added bonus being that the selection of malt whiskies behind the bar gave me the opportunity to  try yet another new "wee dram". The day had been lovely and sunny and warm enough to go without a coat or jumper - the first time in ages - and we felt quite smug to see pictures of the south havi...

The weather forecast was still unsettled and the wind was increasing  to a F6 so we resigned ourselves to a Saturday in Tarbert. It is a pretty little town surrounding the harbour with its own castle overlooking both the Loch and the Harbour. One benefit to our enforced stay was the availability of some Wifi as my trusty phone had completely died the previous day and I had the dreaded black screen with instructions to sync with iTunes! In order to do this I had to spend a couple of hours sitting in a small laundry room mid way between the ladies and gents loos/showers with my computer and phone linked by the Apple umbilical cord waiting for the software to download. We had tried downloading it overnight on the boat but the Wifi kept dropping in and out and so didn't work - the advice from the HM was the best signal was to be found in the laundry - hence my Saturday afternoon in the laundry with a paperback! Sunday dawned very wet and overcast so we decided that if the weathe...

As expected we woke the following morning to a damp boat covered in condensation so a happy hour was spent wiping windows and generally trying to dry everything out. We do have hot air heating on the boat but the skipper is convinced that this diesel powered heating system simply adds to the condensation issues so we rarely use it! Unlike the Caledonian Canal the Crinan Canal does not have locks manned by canal staff and it is expected that crews will operate the locks themselves on the way through, and needless to say they are all manual so there is much pushing of heavy Victorian lock gates and winding of sluice gates! After some thought and talking to folks that we met on the way we decided that we were not agile enough to manage the locks on our own so we decided to pay for some help through the canal. This would mean that we could motor into the locks and instead of me hopping off the boat (if going down) or clambering up a slimy ladder (if going up) to secure the boat there ...

As has been the case for most of this trip as we packed up to leave Oban for a few days the sun began to shine and we travelled to Glasgow in glorious sunshine but as the plane touched down that evening in Stansted so the thunderstorm began. We are beginning to feel a little cursed! After some enforced normality we set off to travel back up to the Highlands and resume our adventure. We decided that we would return by train as our luggage would contain items that would cause some interest to airport security! For weeks the skipper has spent a portion of most days with his head in the engine bay emptying out various containers of water that were collecting as a result of a "dodgy" freshwater pump and a "knackered" pressure release valve. Replacement parts had been duly purchased and were now in our luggage along with various bits of cable and other hardware which on an X-Ray scanner would have looked very dubious! Once the decision to return by train had been taken i...