Week 9 20th-26th July

Wind W 1-2 Sunny then grey

We left Colonsay at 6am to catch the tide through Islay sound.

We reached this scenic stretch of water between Jura and Islay at 8am. Good timing gave us speeds of 8- 9 knots with nearly no wind. We wriggled in and out of the coast slightly to take photos of some of the whisky distilleries.

We arrived at the marina in Port Ellen just after midday in time for some lunch on board.

There are 9 working distilleries on Islay with two more opening in the next couple of years. We had tried, over several days, to book a tour around a distillery within walking or bus distance from Port Ellen. They were all fully booked.

We decided on a walk along the coast road towards the nearest 3 distilleries. Stopping at the second one, Lagavulin, for a wee dram, we chose the whisky of the day because it had been chosen by Craig (Sue’s eldest son is also called Craig). It was an 8 year old single malt. Richard quite liked it, not too peaty. We had it with some water.

We had a lovely evening meal in Port Ellen at the Seasalt Bistro.

Wind W 1 Bright then grey

After a leisurely breakfast we departed from a very calm, serene, Port Ellen, Islay.

We had again timed our departure around the tides. They are quite fierce around Rathlin, running at 6 knots during spring tides. The seas were suddenly quite lumpy as we approached the North west side, due to the over falls.

Once we were around the corner the sea flattened and we had an easy approach into the harbour and marina.

After lunch we wandered across the Island to the East Lighthouse, on Altacarry head. It was built in 1856.

Below the lighthouse is a ‘Bruce’s cave’ where Robert the Bruce allegedly hid in 1306. A spider encouraged him to return to Scotland to win the Battle of Bannockburn. The saying ‘If at once you don’t succeed, try, try again’ originates from the spider story. There are several Bruce’s caves in Scotland according to this amusing BBC article about a cave in Gretna. https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/as/warsofindependence/info.shtml?loc=cave1

We wandered back to the harbour and enjoyed our first pint of Guinness on our journey around Britain. The first of many in Northern Ireland.

We liked Rathlin Island. We were expecting it to be a remote nature reserve, but it was very friendly, with a cafe, shop, hotel and pub. We had discussed whether to stay another day.

Winds W 1 Sunny start, cloud later

Quite a lot of rain went through overnight, and with a bright morning we were looking forward to another leisurely motor sail over to Glenarm on the East coast of Northern Ireland. After breakfast Richard started the engine and………….

Very similar symptoms to when we had engine trouble in Lowestoft during week 4. Fortunately the harbour lady knew someone who could take a look at it. He eventually found a loose wire going to the relay.

Once the engine had been mended it was late afternoon. We had time for a shorter walk rather than the bike ride we had hoped to do. The walk again became slightly elongated because of Richard’s now banned Pocket Earth online map. We lost the ‘easy’ path and had to climb over wobbly dry stone walls to find the road.

Another Guinness in McCuaig’s bar was very much needed before an evening meal aboard Captiva.

Wind ENE 2 Grey

The engine started first time and we left Rathlin at 9am. We left the harbour and encountered a large pod of common dolphins.

We managed some proper sailing and arrived in Glenarm for a late lunch.

There was a strange sea effect as we approached the harbour. A line across the water marking an area of much darker and browner sea, with yellow foam. Apparently the water from the rivers runs over peat, and, especially after lots of rain, causes the sea to be this deep brown colour. A relief that it wasn’t pollution after the way water companies have been behaving.

After lunch we walked to nearby Glenarm Castle Gardens. Dating from the 18th century, the walled garden is in the grounds of Glenarm Castle, the ancestral home of the McDonnell family, Earls of Antrim. It was a lovely garden, with extremely straight yew hedges bordered by cottage garden style planting. There was also a lovely woodland walk.

After exploring we retired to the cafe for a cuppa and delicious strawberry and black forest gateaux. A lovely afternoon.

This was followed by our now obligatory pint of guinness before an evening meal on board Captiva

Wind NNE 1-2 Grey

We left Glenarm at 9:30 for a gentle motor sail to Bangor in Belfast Lough.

We arrived in time for lunch and a quick shower. Richard had time for a quick hair cut before we met up with Judy, Richard’s Aunt.

Judy took us by car to her home in North County Down. It was the first time we had been in a car for 9 weeks.

We had a scrumptious afternoon tea and evening meal with Judy, Tony, Penny, Felicity and a menagerie of dogs and cats. It was great catching up, as we hadn’t seen them since 2017. Thank you all very much, was really great seeing you. Sorry we forgot to take any photographs.

The weather forecast was for it to remain dry so we tackled the laundry. We hung out the washing around the rails and sheets (ropes) of the boat and wandered to Asda for a major food stock up. As we struggled out of the supermarket with our bags of shopping we were disconcerted to find wet pavements and grey skies. The Met Office had really let us down. We retreated to the boat, unloaded our purchases and grabbed the washing and rehung most of it inside the boat.

At 12:30 we met up with Nigel and Joan. Richard worked with Nigel at Cable and Wireless. We had lunch in Bangor before being driven to Mount Stewart, a National Trust property. It is a 19th Century house and garden on the east shore of Strangford Lough, County Down. It was the Irish seat of the Stewart family, the Marquesses of Londonderry.

We had a lovely walk around the house and gardens with our very knowledgeable tour guides, Nigel and Joan.

We were then taken to Portaferry, at the mouth of Strangford Lough.

The little car ferry took us over to Strangford where we had a delicious meal in the Cuam restaurant. Our chauffeur (Nigel) then drove us back to Bangor marina.

We had a really fantastic day, thank you Nigel and Joan.

Winds SE (straight from Peel) Grey and wet

We left Bangor Nortern Ireland at 8:30. We had a lovely sail along the Northern Irish coast until we had passed the Copelands. We then turned South East for the Isle of Man.

The Copeland Islands

Of course as soon as we turned South East, the wind did the same. We then had 9 hours of battling lumpy seas and 20-30mph winds on the nose. With clever tacking we kept a reasonable pace but had to do extra mileage.

We arrived too late to enter the marina at Peel so picked up a mooring in the harbour entrance at 8:30pm. A 12 hour journey that we had hoped to do in 9 hours.

Outside Peel harbour, Isle of Man

Amazing Maisie after enduring a 12 hour sail.