From Guinnessland to Cream Teas

We arrived in Guninessland and did some touring around Belfast. We were waiting for a half decent weather window to head south, but apparently this time of year everyone heads north, according to the wind anyway. After Glenarm we sailed south to Bangor, which is an excellent and safe marina to visit Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was all big ships, big cities and black cabs.

Bernie checking out the dry dock in the middle of Belfast. We need antifoul soon right mum?

Finding cute laneways and historic pubs in Belfast was fun.

And what is not to love about live Irish music?

We have our own Titanic “King of the World” moment at the Titanic museum.

And it was so cool to think that the Titanic was launched from just here. Amazing.

While we were waiting for the wind to be our friend, we decided to hire a car and head to Derry where we would have liked to have sailed to, but… sailing timings don’t always work.

We saw the murals accidentally. I’d wanted to go to the cemetery to see if I could find relatives, and to walk back to town, we walked back right through the middle of Bogside which is where a lot of the “Troubles” occurred.

The cemetery where I looked for McCarron’s (my birth name). I think I found some relations but only my Aunty Jean will know for sure.

We went on a walking tour of Derry and now I’m keen to watch the rest of Derry Girls for sure. What a beautiful place full of history. I’d go back.

We tried to see the Giant’s Causeway after we left Derry, but it was absolutely packed with tourists, so we saw this castle instead. Bernie was intrigued.

Finally, we get the weather to head on down to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery) which is right near Dublin and where we would pick up our guest Ryan, Adrian’s son!

The lifeboat had a shout to help someone with a lobster pot wrapped around their prop.

The sun is shining and we are sailing along.

The sleepiest of sailors. Someone better tell him to turn his blanket over to the plain blue side as we are heading out of the UK now. Arriving near Dublin very soon!

We had to wait outside in the harbour for a while to let 2 big ships cross our path before getting in. This is Dublin from the bay.

And then, Ryan arrives! No jet lag here, nope!

So, again the weather decided to favour those heading north, but no matter as it meant we could explore the Guinness Factory, Temple Bar, general Dubliness etc.

We visit the Guinness Factory and I guess I look like a nice person who should take a photo of a million German football fans.

Guinness is mostly water I learned. Its also DELICIOUS.

And I made the boys come out to see Riverdance. I cried almost the entire time. It was so fantastic – I used to do a little Irish Dancing and I just love it.

Whilst the winds were more favourable for heading north, we did have some nice weather and decided to take Ryan out for a test sail. He did an excellent job helming upwind for a while, getting his sea legs.

Test sail check! Look at that confidence.

Adrian and Ryan take a trip north to show Ryan a bit of Northern Ireland.

The Dark Hedges from Game of Thrones fame.

And Adrian finally gets to see the Giant’s Causeway!

The perfect day for it. I stayed at home as I have been there before, and I could just do… at home things.

The next day, the winds decided to turn, and we could head south, stopping overnight in Arklow, then on to Kilmore Quay for a few days.

A very early start was required to get the right tides from Arklow so I think we were there for like 10 hours.

But alas, whilst we got the tides, the winds died to less than predicted so we had to motor for a little while.

We found great coffee in Kilmore Quay right near the marina.

And a most excellent beach. Although I felt compelled to pick up the ridiculous amount of rubbish (to the left of me). Also, Bernie forgot who his owner was and ran off to another lady so there was a lot of running and shouting at the deaf spaniel. Quite an exciting beach in the end.

After all this beautiful weather and beach walking, we decided England was calling and we should push off and do a decent passage down to the Scilly Isles. I had been to the islands previously on the ferry, and I had also tacked up and down near them when I did the Fastnet last year, but had never sailed here so it was a real treat to get into the islands and anchor up. Not so much of a treat tacking for about 10 hours though. We called it, and put the big metal sail on to get in before Adrian and I passed out.

A very very bumpy start to a 24 hour passage.

But we’re all good and sailing along nicely.

We lost the wind a bit, and it shifted around, so after a lot of tacking, our morning arrival turned into an afternoon arrival. But here we are, safe and sound in the Scilly Islands.

A few days on the Scillys were brilliant and felt like we were almost on a tropical holiday, except that we enjoyed cream teas.

Looking pretty in the anchorage on St Martins Island.

Some confusion about brunch pints. They come in half pints, even though you say pint.

The weather was due to come in, and whilst we would have been fine at the Scilly’s, our passenger was due to get back to France to fly back home so we chose a fabulous day to sail across from the Scilly’s to Falmouth in Cornwall.

Looks almost tropical! Good bye Scilly’s for now!

Happy to be sailing in the sunshine. Last year this would have been snow.

Tied up on the “Super Yacht” dock in Falmouth. Awwww yeah. Ok, we moved the next day.

Burgers and beers after a passage are a good tonic.

It was here, we decided that whilst we are seasoned sailors, expecting someone who has never sailed before to do ocean passages with us was unreasonable, and perhaps some land based activities were in order. So off we went to London, and on to Paris.

And a big old bus randomly at the back of a pub that used to be the Bank of England. What a town, I love London so much.

And a big pyramid, with some of the worlds biggest artists.

Its in Paris where we wave goodbye to Ryan as he heads home to Australia. Thanks Ryan for coming!

Back on Away in Falmouth, again the weather decided we shouldn’t leave the south of England unless we wanted to motor everywhere, so we explored Falmouth, until the fateful day, we realised we could do the quick little 5 mile sail into the Helford River, just south from town. Its a beautiful place.

But… The engine was hard to start.

It started and we sailed, and enjoyed a few beautiful days in the Helford. What an absolute gem of a place.

I must admit, all the photos in this blog are sunny. I think we just took photos when it was sunny.

Sunny. This was the path down to the ferry. We just wandered down to look, but we had the dinghy.

CANNOT have enough thatched cottages. Ok, I may have heard Kylie Minogue used to come here, or had a house here. And also various famous rockers from the 70s have houses here, but I don’t know who they are and Adrian is asleep now as I write this, so you’ll just have to google.

Anchored up here safely in the Helford river. 5 miles from Falmouth.

Our plan was to head to Fowey (pronounced Foy) next. Engine checks done, oil looks funny and for some reason is really really high – way above max. Darn it… We should call the Volvo people in Falmouth. Call made. Advice, “yeeeeeaaaah don’t start that engine, we’ll come and get you”. Stay tuned.

Last time we were expecting good news on the pesky engine issue. Unfortunately, starting issues turned into catastrophic engine failure, days turned into weeks, and Away’s clean hull turned into a prolific undersea garden.

I’m not the only one that needs a beard trim

taking regular trips on the ferry to Oban for critical supplies

optimistically reprogramming the boat to heat water using the sun

making excursions to London and Glasgow to apply for visas

even the deer learned that there was no need to run when Bernie trotted by

But as the colour returned to Scotland there was a glimmer of hope

The correct gaskets had been worked out, the broken fuel lines replaced and the engine burst into life.

It had been an education (‘Wow, look at that redesigned exhaust elbow that allows free movement of the turbo waste gate!’) both in engine mechanics and engine mechanics

For our first trip we were joined by local and gin connoisseur Chelsea who we had met at the tastings she runs in the local area

With only a small diesel leak outstanding we decided it was finally time to say goodbye to our winter family

Early one morning Away and her luscious marine garden drifted off the dock and headed south for new adventures.

We aimed the bow at Lock Tarbert on Jura and were soon reactivating our sailing muscles pushing into a perky swell and a solid sou’wester. A quick poll was taken and it was concluded a night at in a local bay and an adventurously early start to catch the next tide was in order, rather than an extended and slightly damp bash along the Jura coast.

Away loving the conditions. Crew, not so much.

Next mornings rainbow reminded us we were still in Scotland

The next day it was a short back track to catch the impressive tide down the sheltered east side of Jura. The 5 knot tidal flow validated the early start! We passed the notorious Gulf of Corryvrecken well known for its tidal whirlpools. We had momentarily considered a short cut through the Corryvrecken but the overfalls and surging cross current confirmed our decision. Soon we were travelling as fast sideways as forwards! The local lifeboat roared up and down in what looked like a search pattern. Perhaps a crew member had lost their hat overboard. The tidal assistance declined and we tacked into Port Ellen between some squalls. The marina is on the compact side and a wee cross wind added to the fun. Not satisfied with the challenge we flattened the bow thruster battery on our reconnaissance pass and we were well satisfied (relieved) to reach the dock on our first attempt.

Coincidentally Port Ellen is walking distance from three of the finest Scottish distilleries and not far from several others, the perfect final stop in Scotland. We made a considered decision to leave the bikes at home and head out on foot towards our first stop: Laphroaig.

Laphroaig has been a long time favourite and we were taking this visit seriously

The ‘old and rare’ sampling flight did not disappoint

Curiously, Fi was starting to leave yellow footprints behind and the day had only just begun

Another 30 minutes walk brought us to the next stop, the smoother and more jovial Lagavulin.

Off to our final destination, and even the cows were startled by our ponderous walking style

At first we couldn’t find the entrance despite a large black arrow pointing at it. But persistence paid off and we enjoyed our final tasting even more after discovering that a dog friendly bus could whisk us home.

The next passage involved one of those squeezy bits between the Mull of Kintyre and the Guinessland coast. Once a land bridge it now squeezes the waters rushing out of the Irish sea amplifying the waves and inspiring song lyrics. With tide and wind in the same direction our passage started well, but the afternoon winds continued to build to ‘a bit brisk for this early in season’ level and we decided to make an early landfall at Glenarm and celebrate our first new country of the year.