Our final couple of days in Ireland were memorable for sea birds, a super, cliff-top walk to the Giants’ causeway and strolling on the beach at Ballycastle in the evening sunshine.  Also, for the highly amusing spectacle of a bus driver trying to explain to a French tourist that, the local currency being Sterling, he is unable to take Euros as payment, with fellow passengers vying to exchange his 20 Euro for a suitable number of pounds.

From Ballycastle (north coast of Ireland) we had a clear view of Islay and the Scottish mainland.  By halfway across the North Channel to Scotland we couldn’t see anything apart from the inside of a cloud, and it didn’t get better.  We anchored off Islay but could barely see it, and then moved through the murk to one of the rather splendid new moorings outside the Jura distillery.  The business plan for the moorings looked pretty sound based on the amount of trade generated by crews of visiting yachts at the distillery and hotel bar.  One boat with 8 guys on board came back with bottles of whisky and by late in the evening we had half clothed sailors trying to get their dinghy to do doughnuts around their yacht; we now know we are back in the UK.

Yesterday we woke up to a traditional Scottish day of mist and rain.  Walking through a midge-laden swamp on Jura we had such bad visibility that we couldn’t see the sound of Jura, and often couldn’t even see the path, never mind the hills above.

Walking in Ireland

Walking in Scotland

On a positive note, we have enjoyed having John on board with us for a week.  Long suffering friend, IT consultant, suspected tax-avoider and creator of the infamous non-setting jelly, he has been patiently teaching us the difference between guillemot and razor bill.  However, we have a feeling that he is relying on our complete incompetence in this area so could probably tell us anything.

John at the helm

Razorbill (not Guillemot)

Moored off Carnlough

Our previous boat had a grill.  As we normally have a high-toast-content diet, we miss this, so for lunch today we went straight for the toast (scrambled egg option) at a local café in Bangor.  Little things.  We have spent a pleasant few days here awaiting our new crew member.  (Would have been a shorter wait if he hadn’t missed his flight to Belfast, but then we wouldn’t have found the scrambled egg and toast.)  The local council has worked hard to create a Bangor walking tour with limited historical and cultural material at its disposal.  Highlights were an Edward VIII post box (which isn’t actually a post box as far as we can see), Bangor castle museum (fairly recent but nevertheless in an impressive setting) and, the reason we came here in the first place, the Pickie Fun Park Mini Golf.  Alex won this major sporting event by 3 strokes.

On the way to Bangor we spent a couple of days in Strangford Lough, a pretty place with an “interesting” entry: several miles long with tidal flows as high as our maximum speed and narrow enough to need frequent tacking when the wind is against you.  (It was.) Near one end there’s a huge tower to support the tidal barrage.  It looks benign enough at slack water but at full flow (as it was when we came in) there is a huge wave piled up against it on one side with a corresponding hole in the water on the other and a big slope in between.  The whole thing is painted black and red (colours of the isolated danger mark) and you would think it should be easy enough to miss, but it comes at you very quickly when you are tacking in a 6 knot stream with 25-30 knots of wind!

Winch components after cleaning in petrol

Easy enough to avoid in benign conditions

Approach to Portaferry

We had a decent sail up here from Strangford and have seen many more cruising yachts than in the previous 3 weeks in the Republic of Ireland.  Some of them were even sailing.  As we try to avoid using the engine we are always amazed at the number of people motoring about in sailing yachts, in conditions that seem perfectly good for sailing.  However, the engine is certainly useful from time to time.  The last few miles to Bangor from our overnight anchorage off Copeland Island had taken quite a while before Helen relented (under pressure) and agreed we needed to motor if we wanted to arrive the same day.  Pros and cons though.  While drifting about aimlessly on the tide we had a small bottlenose dolphin circle the boat a couple of times, coming close enough for us to hear it breathing when it crested the surface.  Don’t think we’d have seen that with the motor on…

On windless days we have been ticking some odd jobs off our list: took one of the halyard winches apart as it has been making strange groaning noises and found a plastic washer in pieces in the bottom.  Have replaced with a copper one and will see if that is good enough.  Traced our mystery 0.5A current drain to a combination of the CO alarm and the stereo and have now wired them in properly to the circuit breakers and switch panel so they can be switched off when not in use.  Finally, we wired in a new pump for the fuel cell waste container so we can clear it without having to empty the cockpit locker!

The coastline has become more mountainous and we picked up Belfast coastguard on the VHF for the first time yesterday.  Coming into range of new coastguard stations always feels exciting, like we are making progress.

Early morning start from East Dunmore

Coastline approaching Carlingford

The weather is still dominated by the high pressure and its fluky wind conditions.  On a 20 mile straight-line course from Skerries to Carlingford Lough, we went from being close hauled on port tack, to having no wind at all, to picking up a new air flow that had us close hauled on starboard tack, which finally freed up to become a rare beam reach.

We love this country.  Helen would like to live here (Alex prefers Dartmouth).

The sailing centres are buzzing – dinghies, yachts, keelboats, kids of all ages, boats constantly coming and going and the yacht club bar doesn’t stop serving food until people stop coming in for it (pretty late).  Strangely, while there seems a keen interest in racing, there doesn’t seem to be as much sail cruising.  We have seen more Canadian and Belgian yachts than Irish ones touring the coastline!

There are sea birds all over the place, we are struggling to identify them all.  Herons are less shy than at home – we have seen one in every marina.  They stalk the pontoons and stand on the bathing platforms of motor yachts, plucking passing fish out of the water.

Nesting seabirds on the cliffs at Ardmore

Exploring by kayak in calm conditions

Having now listened to a lot of national radio, it is clear that Ireland has pretty much the same issues we have at home: house price inflation, pressure on the health service, overcrowded public transport in major cities and (despite bring so wet) hosepipe bans when the sun comes out, with water companies blamed for high leakage rates.  Refreshingly, the quality of debate is much better than at home.  The radio presenters host relevant and knowledgeable guests daily and are able to carry out informative interviews that get to the detail without the pointless point-scoring.

Apart from a lack of skimmed milk and coffee bags, the biggest differences we have noticed from home are the genuine welcome and lack of reserve.  Wherever there are two or more Irish people in the same place there is a conversation going on.  In the marina shower block, I found out that my 3 companions were a novice diver, a final year vet student and a compliance manager in a phama company, also hair conditioner is a good lubricant if you are struggling to get a tight wetsuit on.  At home there are plenty of people we have known for years, without really knowing them at all…

We are poised now on the border between the Republic of Ireland (on the south bank of Carlingford Lough) and the North (on the north bank); it is Euros on the south side, pounds on the north, and a ferry going to and froacross the river – we wonder if they have border checks!  Our next journey will take us back into the UK.  We have freely moved about the country and the seas around it for the last month, without question and with a welcoming, friendly people. We wonder what the differences might be in 2 years time…