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The Fair Head Slalom Rathlin to Bangor 02 September 2024

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  Leaving Church Bay on Rathlin in the dark. After our short but extremely enjoyable trip to Glenarm and Rathlin, it was time to head home. Around Rathlin and Fair Head, and indeed the whole north Irish Sea, the tide is the master.  We had to leave at 06.00, half an hour before dawn, in order to catch the tide south. Another view of Rue Point, this time just before dawn, with the light flashing. The advantage of catching the tide is that it speeds you along the way.  With the engines operating at their usual 1800rpm we make about 8.5 to 9.0 knots - our normal cruising speed.  But we always try to catch a bit of tide to speed us along - normally 1 or 2 knots. The tides past Fair Head allow you to have fun. The top figure is our speed through the water - what we achieve using the engines. The bottom figure is our speed over the ground - the speed we are actually doing. The difference is the speed of the tide, 5.5 knots in this case.  This is a fantastic speed for us, and indeed at one po
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Eastern Promise (unrequited) A day on Rathlin 01 September 2024

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  Part of painting, by James Coyle, of Rue beacon and light.  This is on display in a gallery up near the Catholic Church on the island. A very grey day on Rathlin today.  With a SE breeze, and quite cool.  So we had a gentle start to the day, after all we are not moving on today.  After breakfast, followed immediately by morning coffee, we went for a walk to the East Lighthouse. It’s not a long walk (about 3 miles the round trip) but it was a lovely walk.  It’s part of the island we are not very familiar with and so it was good to explore.  The narrow roads are easy walking and, surprisingly to us, the verges and open moorland are a riot of rich colour from the wild flowers - mainly very low-lying yellow gorse (just a few inches high) and purple heather.  But there are also a plethora of other flowers mixed in with blues, purples, yellows, orange and red. From top left, clockwise: scabious, knapweed, harebells, montbretia, gorse and heather. The East Lighthouse was good to see, though
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Pathos and Pleasure. Glenarm to Rathlin 31 August 2024

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  The Pleasure Yesterday we saw a walking route sign for the International Appalachian Trail.         In Glenarm?! In Co Antrim, Norn Iron?!  Weird. This morning we found out what this is all about: The International Appalachian Trail (IAT) Ulster Ireland is just one of a growing number of established IAT walking trails stretching across 3 continents which share a common geological heritage - the Appalachian-Caledonian Mountains.  These formed more than 250 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era.  The trail begins at Slieve League in Donegal, goes east through the Blue Stack Mountains, through Tyrone, and then follows the Ulster Way round the north coast and down to Larne - via Glenarm along the way.  Now, where did I put my boots…..? Clive has brought to our attention the pathos: Picture taken from the internet of Madman’s Window. A mile or so south of Glenarm is a geological oddity called Madman’s Window, so called from a tale about a man from Glenarm who lost his sweetheart in t
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Schools are back - the weather has improved! Bangor to Glenarm 30 August 2024

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  Top - The Gobbins looking well as we passed this morning. Bottom - one of three groups of (intrepid?) visitors being guided along the cliff path on this glorious day. HDs Well, no sooner do the schools go back but the weather takes a turn for the better.  We had four days of calm sunny weather forecast, so we are taking the opportunity to get a late summer trip in.  Glenarm and Rathlin.  Though, as I write (in Glenarm) the forecast has reduced to two days of calm sunny weather, so we will see how far we get.  The journey up from Bangor was beautiful - calm and warm.  Disappointingly we saw no cetaceans, but we did see five (or six) Pale-bellied Brent Geese which will have left Iceland probably yesterday morning and won’t stop flying until they get to Strangford Lough.  They fly southeast from Iceland until they get to the north coast, then follow it eastwards to Fairhead, and then follow the Antrim coast south - using the coastline as their navigational aid. You can’t beat a birdbrai
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What a night! Lamlash to Bangor 29 July 2024

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  This morning, still securely attached to our mooring buoy in Lamlash Bay.  Thank goodness.  It had been a horrid night with very little sleep.  Thumps, bangs, groans and creaks, squeaks, slapping and gurgling water, and the boat rocking from side to side just about all night.  We all slept very little, and both Gordon and I were up, at separate times, twice during the night to check that we hadn’t broken loose and something dire was happening. Wind in one direction and short sharp waves coming into the bay from a different direction at right angles, meant we rocked all night.  We really like Lamlash but its bay gave us a thrashing. We slipped our mooring at 09.00 to head out into the north Irish Sea with a brisk breeze blowing. Our bowsprit flag was rigid from the outset and stayed that way all the way home.  It got really quite rough from the bottom end of Arran until well past Ailsa Craig, but nothing the boat can’t handle.  The second half of the journey was a little bit calmer, t
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Visiting Arran. Portavadie to Lamlash 28 July 2024

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  Passing the village of Corrie on the Isle of Arran Mirror calm again today (to start with) so we left our berth at 09.00 to head south to overnight at Lamlash on the Isle of Arran.  The smooth sea conditions allowed us to see Harbour Porpoises on several occasions, and a Minke Whale several times on one occasion. Travelling close to Arran with sun out made it feel like summer (not something we are used to this year). Strangely our inverter has stopped working - which we discovered when we went to boil a kettle for breakfast tea.  It’s a new (2.5 years old) and market leading brand inverter (Victron), so we are very puzzled why it should stop.  We tried a couple of easy fixes but to no avail.  It’s not the end of the world - it stops us using the coffee machine or boiling the kettle on the move, but we can overcome this by starting up the generator.  We’ll sort the problem out when we get home. Arrived in Lamlash bay at 11.30 and had to perform some gymnastics in order to attach to on
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