Berthed in Bangor

Summary: A quick final sail round Belfast Lough and then back into Bangor marina. 5.9 miles in 1hr 55 minutes.

After filling up with fuel and gas and pumping out the holding tank, we popped out today for a quick sail. In the sunshine, Belfast Lough was beautiful and though it was only blowing a light northeasterly 1-2, we had a relaxing couple of hours sailing – tacking down towards Donagdahee Sound. We then headed back into Bangor marina where we have decided to leave the boat for the winter. A good winter deal makes it reasonably good value and it is a very secure and sheltered harbour, so it seems like a good place to leave the boat. We are then only 40 miles away from the Mull of Kintyre for next season!

Bangor Marina

Bumbling to Bangor

Strong tide through Donaghadee Sound

Summary: Ardglass to Bangor. 38.7 miles in 7 hours and 35 minutes. A lovely sail past Strangford Lough and into Belfast Lough through Donaghadee Sound and past Copeland Island.

A strange thing happened today – a golden orb mysteriously appeared in the sky. Some online research confirmed that it was the sun and that it had been spotted often prior to the 2012 sailing season. To compound the mystery the wind also blew a lovely force 3, though we were brought down to earth slightly by the fact that it blew from the NW which was exactly where we wanted to go. However, we managed to sail nearly all the way tacking up a beautiful section of coast. We had to turn the engine on briefly to get through the narrow Donaghadee Sound between the shore and Copeland Island. Trying to tack through this narrow passage with 2 knots of tide against us and the wind dead ahead might have been a little foolhardy, but after this we managed to sail again (albeit slowly) right up to the entrance to Bangor Marina.

Ambling to Ardglass

Summary: Howth to Ardglass. From Ireland into Northern Ireland. 57.7 miles in 10 hours and 30 minutes. A slow plod, motorsailing all the way as the wind was pretty much from dead ahead.

We left Howth after a grotty night at around 5am and in fairly grey weather bounced our way past Ireland’s Eye and the Lambay Island and then the isolated rocks of Rockabill. After a few hours the weather started to improve and the wind dropped, so we kept heading across Dundalk Bay and past Carlingford Lough to Ardglass. We arrived around 3.30pm – tired, but satisfying to have arrived.

Ardglass is a lovely little marina. Perhaps the most Heath Robinson we have visited yet. It is basic in most respects, but cheap and genuinely cheerful – people are all very friendly and helpful. Using the WiFi in their upstairs room which is also used for AA meetings is certainly different! The marina also has a resident grey bull seal – an enormous seal that surfaces around the place occasionally.

Hopping to Howth

Summary: A short trip from Dun Laoghaire to Howth. 11.7 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Fairly grey and damp day, but we managed a short time actually sailing for a change.

Squeezed in at Howth YC

George arrived last night and we decided to try to move on a little. However, the forecast was for very poor visibility, so we decided just to go out into Dublin Bay and have a look and see what it was like. After a relaxing morning looking around town and looking at the various boats left over from the ISAF Youth World Championships, we left after lunch and managed a slow beat across Dublin Bay. We could just see the other side of the bay and so tacked over to the Ben of Howth and then round the corner into Howth marina.

It was a little lumpy coming into the marina against the tide, but a lovely route past the island just off Howth called Ireland’s Eye. The island has a lovely rock stack off its eastern edge, imaginatively called ‘The Stack‘. The only signs of past habitation on the island are a Martello Tower and the ruins of a church. The church was apparently the parish church for Howth for years, though it was eventually replaced by a church in Howth village when taking a boat to every service became a little restrictive.

A dose of diesel to Dublin

Leaving Milford Haven round St.Ann's Head

Summary: Milford Haven to Dun Laoghaire. 114.6 miles in 22 hours and 5 minutes. An unremarkable passage with relatively little wind. We did manage to sail for a few hours, but ended up motoring for the vast majority of the passage with too little wind to sail.

We left Milford Haven just after 7am to catch the start of the ebb down the harbour and had a good blast of tide out between Skokholm & Skomer islands and Grassholm. A few minor overfalls, but nothing much and a beautiful run between the islands. We did then manage to sail for a few hours with a light northerly, but after a few hours that died and so on went the donker. It then stayed on for the next fourteen hours or so. We headed south of the Arklow Bank and the sun setting over the hills behind Arklow was stunning. The night was then really clear with a great view of the milky way. The phosporescence was remarkable as well – very luminous in nature. A fisherman’s buoy with the tide running past it looked like it had a glowing green ring around its base. Phosphorescence is energy being released slowly in the form of light. The phosphoresence in water is mainly due to dinoflagellates which are a form of marine plankton and they emit the light when disturbed in the wake of the boat. Estimates suggest that there are around 1700 different species of marine dinoflagellates, so goodness knows which we saw in the water!

Mixing it with the dolphins to Milford Haven

Bottlenose Dolphin playing around the boat

Summary: Falmouth to Neyland Marina in Milford Haven. 172.3 miles in 25 hours. Wind from more or less ahead nearly all the way, so a quite a bit of motorsailing, but managed to sail around half the passage. Weather – generally grey and murky with Wind mainly from NW/W 4-5.

After waiting for days for a reasonable forecast in Falmouth, we finally got a window of sorts, though with less than ideal winds forecast to be from the N/NW – just where we wanted to go. So, we set off around 10am Monday to try and catch the tide first at the Lizard and then the north going stream at Lands End. Motorsailed most of the way to Lands End and finally – past the Longships lighthouse and we are heading north. The wind then kicked in reasonably from the NW and occasionally west and we managed to sail through most of the night, though we took in one reef and went down to 2/3 jib for the night as the wind gusted 5 occasionally. Then, sods law, about 3 hours out from Milford Haven with the east going stream just beginning, the wind headed us completely and we had to motorsail the last part into murky grey and wet weather with the wind more or less right on the nose. Not a classic passage, but functional.

Supersize me …!

Feeling small in Falmouth

Summary: Mylor to Falmouth Visitors Yacht Haven. Moved round to the main Falmouth Yacht Haven – the stunningly long distance of 3.8 miles in 1 hour, most of which was spent gilling around trying to find a berth.

The forecast still had gale warnings for all sea areas, so for a change of scenery we decided to head round to Falmouth to the vistors marina in the centre of town. Motored all the way round, but spent some time gilling around trying to find a suitable berth. With a large rally from Southampton taking most of the berths, there wasn’t much space. We ended up with the unusual berthing problem of having to jump up to get the lines on rather than the usual situation of jumping down. In fact, the catamaran we are moored against had such a high freeboard that we just tied on a breast rope until we could work out how to climb up onto it. In the end we have put our fender step onto his cleat to enable us to get onto his deck. The catamaran is from the Netherlands and they have taken 3 years off to cruise around with a two year old on board!

Footling around Falmouth

Smugglers Cottage with laid up ferry

Summary: Mylor to Truro River and back. Anchored for the night up the Truro River just beyond the King Harry Ferry. Once anchored found we had engine cooling problems, so spent evening trying to sort them. Next morning headed off back towards Falmouth, but after 20 minutes found the cooling problems still there, so sailed back to Mylor and got a tow back in from the yard workboat. A huge round trip of 9.9 miles!

Got back to the boat after nearly two weeks at home waiting for a weather window. We thought we had one till we looked at the evening forecast on Thursday. Discovered that the low that was supposed to be further west had come east and was centred over Milford Haven giving winds round Lands End of 25-30 knots with torrential rain. So, a change of plan! We decided to head up the Truro River for a change of scenery. Had a short sail over to by Trellisick House and then motored up past the King Harry Ferry and Smugglers Cottage to just before Maggotey Bank and anchored there for the evening – a beautiful peaceful spot. However, just when we had finished anchoring the water warning light came on on the engine. We discovered it had lost all its coolant with a perished pipe from the heat exchanger to the calorifier. Andy L spent the evening fiddling in a really tight space to try to cut the end off the pipe and replace it on the fitting, but we didn’t manage (I did sterling work holding the torch!).

Motorsailing to Mylor

Summary: Fowey to Mylor (Falmouth Harbour). 27.4 miles in 3 hours and 45 minutes. A short trip along a lovely coast and for a change in sunshine. A reasonable breeze got up, but from more or less dead ahead so we motorsailed with main only.

St. Mawes Castle

We left Fowey at just after 8am. Even though it was calm it was not a stunningly comfortable night on the mooring with a residual swell still coming into the river. Fowey is quite open to the south and the visitor’s moorings are a little exposed. Initially it was pretty much calm and so hoisted just a main and motorsailed to Dodman Point. After Dodman Point we managed to bear away a little but still too tight to sail straight there so we carried on motorsailing while the breeze came up quite a bit. Eventually there was 20 knots as we came into Falmouth Harbour. It was lovely to come into the harbour and recognise the various places – St.Mawes Castle and the Percuil River (where we used to sail a Wayfarer from when holidaying at Gerrans), Pendennis Castle and St. Just in Roseland. We headed in a little further than usual to Mylor Yacht haven which is a Transeurope Marina. A friendly welcome and once again help with our lines which was great as they initially tucked us in a very tight gap between two very expensive boats! After chatting though we then moved to a finger berth – once again, with help. A lovely spot and friendly marina with good facilities. There is also a Cornish Shrimper rally taking place at the same time with around 60 of them rafted up around the marina.

Flolloping to Fowey

Summary: Plymouth to Fowey. 28.2 miles in 4 hours and 25 minutes. A bit of a bouncy trip with quite a left-over swell from the previous three days of gales, but we managed to sail most of the way.

Fowey from St.Catherine's Castle

We at last left Plymouth after waiting nearly four days for the gale to abate. The wind finally dropped overnight, but we were still graunching and tugging at the mooring lines all night, so not a great night’s sleep. Out of the harbour we found a W4 and motorsailed with one reef in the main out towards the Eddystone Rocks to clear the point. Once clear we tacked round and pulled out most of the jib. We had a great sail towards Fowey, though we went a little further than necessary as I had overstood the entrance a little before tacking. At the entrance we found we were not the only visitors that day with a large cruise ship anchored directly across the mouth of the river and tenders buzzing in and out with passengers. However, inside was very quiet and we picked up a visitor’s buoy.