A
modestly early start (06:15am) to catch the North Bound tide towards Bangor,
found a much better day altogether. Wednesday 18 August 1998
A
modestly early start (06:15am) to catch the North Bound tide towards Bangor,
found a much better day altogether.
Although we had the wind on the nose for the first hour to Strangford Fairway buoy, we were progressively able to turn away from the wind as we passed South Rock, then Skullmartin, before pushing against the first of the flood tide to get through Donaghadee Sound - by which time we were well able to sail the last stretch into Bangor by 12:25.
Off for a curry tonight - we've been getting withdrawal symptoms! Great curry - remember to try the "Bokhara" if you pass this way.
Thursday - a stiffish North East
breeze (nothing wild) decided us on partaking of an Ulster Fry at the Heatherlea,
then a walk on the coastal path to Holywood, near Belfast, then a Pizza Hut
visit for tea. Do we cruise just to find good food, or what, eh?
Friday 20 August
22
years married today !
Moved against a light NE wind, to Carnlough in County Antrim. Just off Carnlough, we found a life-raft, still uninflated in its case, floating about 1/2 a mile offshore. We used man-overboard procedures to recover it. It was a pretty new 6-man job worth about £1200 - it's off to the local coastguard to see if they can track who lost it, otherwise, salvage laws apparently say it's ours!
Carnlough Harbour is about 10 miles north of Larne Harbour - and was built to enable the export of Limestone from the nearby quarries. Much was carried across to the Clyde aboard the steam 'puffers' of Para Handy fame, for use in the smelting of iron ore in Clydeside's steel industry.
The old mineral line track crosses to the harbour in the ornate arched bridge in the photo - and the stone used to then be loaded by gravity onto waiting boats.
The shops here sell fresh "dulse" - which we tried out on a visit about 4 years ago. It dates from the Irish potato famines when poor people were literally starving - and consists of freshly picked seaweed. It tastes a bit like eating dried sea-water!
Saturday 21 August
New
territory today - so far all our travels have been to harbours and marinas we've
been to before - with Tidewinder, or with our last boat Maranatha. Our
journey north from Carnlough took us over new ground - and some of the fastest
flowing tides in the British Isles, as the waters of the Irish Sea and Clyde
squeeze up between Mull of Kintyre and Ireland - and hit the "L"
shaped Rathlin Island, causing more swirls and eddies on the chart than you'll
find almost anywhere else in the UK.
Today,
though, with light NE winds, and settled seas, we drifted slowly North to Fair
Head in calm peaceful seas. Around Ireland's North East corner we then
came into the new Ballycastle marina - created as part of major harbour works
associated with a new ferry service to Rathlin island - there's also a summer
service to Campbeltown on the Kintyre peninsular.
From Ballycastle, you can easily see Kintyre, the Island of Islay - and in the distance the Paps of Jura were clearly to be seen.
Since we've not been here before, a stay of a few days is called-for - and tomorrow we're off (by bus) to take a look at the Giants Causeway.
Sunday 22 August
Our
bus was nearly twenty minutes late - (no wonder folks don't use public
transport) - but we didn't account for our driver's aspirations to show Damon
Hill a thing or two. By the time we arrived at Giant's Causeway, he'd made
up 10 minutes - and it's only a half hour journey! I'm sure the back
wheels were off the ground as much as they were on it.
The Giant's Causeway is an impressive outcrop of rock - so perfectly formed that it looks as if it was made and fitted together by hand. Having visited the 'official' Giant's Causeway, plus an impressive set of columns in a nearby cliff known as "The Organ", we walked the cliff path back to Ballintoy.
The rock columns also appear in many of the high cliffs in the area - and the whole made a very impressive seascape. I'll bet there are very few days when the sea was as calm as we saw it, too.
Monday 23 August
Winds
are set in the SE at the moment - far from ideal for journeying back, so we're
taking the opportunity to "do" this part of the world - which is new
to us. Today, we walked back to Ballintoy, and the "Carrick-a-Rede".
This is a rope bridge slung from a cliff-top to a small island just off.
The bridge was originally put in place to allow access to a salmon-fishing station - but is now a nerve-racking tourist attraction. Crossing takes you high over a gully - with the sea about 80 foot below. "Carrick-a-Rede" means 'Rock in the Road" - Salmon travelling west to their spawning grounds are diverted by the island - and the salmon net is able to catch them - salmon have been caught here for several hundred years.
Once safely back on the mainland -
we walked to Roark's Kitchen at Ballintoy Harbour - a favourable addition to the
Tidewinder list of coffee shops with superb home baking. The bus back must have
passed the stop at least 10 minutes early - so we had a 6 mile walk back to
Ballycastle - who said something about needing to use more public transport?
Tuesday 24 August
A visit to Portrush - by Taxi and returning by bus - meant we could have a dip
in the fun pool there - though it's no good for serious swimming.
Wednesday 25 August
Left
at 10:30 for the shortish (5 miles) journey to Church Bay, Rathlin Island.
The wind was still stiffish from the east, and the day murky and damp, so we
were pleased enough to arrive and tie up alongside an old fishing boat in the
old harbour.
Rathlin has also undergone harbour development recently to provide two new breakwaters - which have enabled the new ferry service to be established.
Rathlin has two claims to fame - the cave where Robert the Bruce watched the spider, was here, and Marconi established the world's first wireless transmission between Ballycastle and here to report shipping movements to the Lloyds station on Tor Head.
The day we arrived, the island was being visited by a large number of "twitchers" as some rare eagle has been spotted here. Nothing doing for the bird-watchers today, though - cloud, rain and hill fog saw to that.
Rathlin is a very marginal community - only 100 residents, and the evidence of decay and dereliction everywhere - and we're sure that the words "MOT" have never been mentioned anywhere near the population of old bangers which serve as transport here. Hopefully, the new Ro-Ro ferry service will allow regeneration of the island, and halt its decline.
About 9:30pm we heard a yacht "Pansy" (it turned out to be "Tansy!") calling Belfast Coastguard. A single hander had become fog-bound and his GPS and Echo Sounder had failed. We could hear both sides of the conversation - but Belfast could not hear the yacht properly. We ended up being relay station - eventually helping Portrush Lifeboat find the yacht and guide him to Church Bay, Rathlin around midnight.
Thursday 26th August
A
brisk start at 5:30 - ready to leave at 6:15am to get the slack (est) tide out
from Rathlin Sound and past Fair Head and Tor Head. If this was slack,
wow! We were doing 11+ knots (over the ground) before we knew it - and
went over 13 knots at times. The sheer enormity of the volumes of water
moving is staggering.
Although the wind was only moderate, these sort of tidal flows are bound to kick up some interesting seas - and every headland for the first two or three hours had its tidal overfalls and rougher patches - a place to be avoided in strong winds!
We arrived at Carrickfergus Marina -
the first harbour we ever visited in Ireland in 1992 - just 6 hours after
leaving Rathlin - some 48 miles over the ground! Developments here have
made vast improvements to the rather "industrial" outlook of the area
around the marina - with a major retail development under way. The bad
news is that the opening of two large superstores seems to have wiped out the
town centre - which used to have some wonderful butchers, bakers and
greengrocers. Another High-Street of hairdressers, travel agents and shoe
shops...., oh dear! On a brighter note, Carrickfergus is leading the
Northern Ireland entry in the Briatin in Bloom contest - and has an astonishing
amount of superb floral displays, hanging baskets and window boxes etc everywhere
you look - beautiful.
Saturday 28th August
Up
and off by 8:15 to head back to Bangor for the bank-holiday weekend high-jinks,
including the Bangor Traditional Boat Festival, Street Entertainment - and the
Bangor Belle - a shuttle train to Belfast organised by the Irish Railway
Preservation Society.
Steam trains always seam to play a part in our annual cruise - so we took the opportunity to try this Irish version. Locomotive 171 was built by Beyer & Peacock in Manchester in 1913 - the same firm who manufactured the narrow- gauge locomotives which work the Isle of Man Steam railway. Not bad to be still in working order after 86 years! An interesting experience for the Tidewinder Crew to be on a mainline (standard gauge) railway again - we usually find narrow-gauge lines.
Sunday 29th August
A
nice lazy start - then a walk along to Groomsport - home of the Cockle Island
Boat club, in order to "earn" a curry at the Bokhara - probably our
last this season in Bangor, as the days are quickly drawing in - even at full
moon it is getting gloomy by 9pm.
Then an early night, ready for a
6:00am departure back to Ramsey.