Across the top

From Killybegs, we moved up the bay to Teelin in order to get the boat ship-shape again. It turned out to be a beautiful anchorage, surrounded by green hills but with the same dark brown water as in Killybegs. Maybe caused by fresh water running down through the peat?? It looked like we were in a bay bounded by two long sandy beaches until we tried walking to one and ended up on a wild goose chase up the side of a river. A local man saved the day by allowing us through his garden to the narrow strip of beach behind and Katie was finally able to paddle.



The next day we had some pretty strong winds pushing us up the coast, along with fog, visibility was down to less than half a mile. We passed the famous Sleive League coastline but the clifftops were hidden in clouds and their magnificence was hidden in the grey drizzle. A lifeboat overtook us briefly in the mist then disappeared again, we later found out they had steamed around from Killybegs. As usual, Katie didn’t seem too bothered by the motion!



The lighthouse on Arranmore Island finally appeared through the mist and once around Torneady Point the swell dropped immediately. After anchoring, we went for a wander ashore and Dave spotted a similar boat to ours ashore on the slip and badly affected by gribble (worm). Later the owner came out by RIB and confirmed it is indeed a sister ship, the Ros Oirthir, his father fished her for years and he is considering the huge task of rebuilding her, replacement keel and all. Another sister ship, the Ros Ard, is apparently still fishing here and in immaculate condition but she was moored way around the south of the island and we didn’t get a chance to see her.

The weather was perfect the following day, blowing W3-4, and we had a great sail up the last of the west coast and around Bloody Foreland. We passed several islands - Tory island, Inishbeg and another Inishbofin and anchored for the night in a place called Portsalon, halfway down Lough Swilly. There was a long sandy half-moon beach but we were rather disappointed to find that the ‘village’ consisted of bunches of identical modern holiday homes. Not a single old stone cottage in sight. Were they all knocked down to make way for this or was it uninhabited before? Either way, the boat looked pretty at anchor and the holiday-makers seemed to be having a grand time.

The wind had pretty much disappeared the next day but we hoisted the mainsail in hope and motored out to Malin Head. This was the northernmost point of our trip, though not of Ireland, as we cut inside the island of Inishtrahull. Having seen very few pleasure boats at sea so far, we were surprised to cross paths with two right at the top of the Emerald Isle! One was a yellow RIB who stopped for a moment to take in the scenery, snap a couple of pictures and exchange a friendly wave before disappearing into the distance. We wondered for a moment if it was Ed William-Hawkes reliving his round-Ireland adventure from several years back!



We also crept up on another blue boat with tan sails, this one a highly unusual junk rig. We exchanged hellos as we passed by and ascertained where each other was going. We had planned to stop in a fishing harbour called Greencastle but after a quick recce Dave decided there was precious little room so we motored on and joined the other yacht at a place called Coleraine up the river Bann. They were a British couple who had cruised down from Scotland with their newly aqcuired boat, and hadn’t been near ‘civilisation’ for over a month!
They certainly found it in Coleraine (pronounced Coal-rain), in the form of a busy town centre and a shocking amount of traffic on the road - we had obviously slowed down to the pace of life in Southern Ireland! Here we had crossed the border into Northern Ireland and it was just like being in England, with a big Tesco’s down the road and prices in pounds sterling instead of euros. One of the bonuses was a big swimming pool in the town, complete with water slides, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.


Strong winds were forecast for the next three days so we realized we weren’t going to make it the 25 miles to Ballycastle where we were hoping to meet up with Pat Nolan, who wrote ‘Sea Change’, a book about the 50-foot Irish fishing fleet. As it was, he came down to meet us and took us for a drive along the coast as far as Ballycastle. The road followed a stunning coastline dotted with castle ruins, lovely beaches and busy holiday towns. We passed the world-famous Giant’s Causeway, a geologist’s heaven of natural lava rock formation but sadly it is not visible from the road and the queue of waiting cars put us off actually taking a guided tour to see it. The same applied to the wobbly rope bridge across to an island so we had to be content with the view from above. It was great to see the coastline we would soon be sailing along and get to know Pat a little better after our brief meeting in Killybegs.



The following day we took the train to Belfast for the last day of the Tall Ships celebrations, arriving just in time to watch the fleet departing. They made a spectacular sight, especially the majestic ‘Europa’ with her square sails set. A man from GMTV overheard us say we’d come from England and wanted to interview us but Dave, ever camera-shy, declined.
We had promised Katie a visit to the funfair but we couldn’t believe it when a 3-minute ride on the carousel cost £6!! They were certainly making the most of the masses of people visiting.



Before we left, we spent a sociable evening in the local yacht club where we caught up with our neighbours on ‘Moonshadow’, who we had first met in the Azores last summer! We all looked back fondly on the glorious weather we had experienced there… but, as we keep reminding ourselves, we didn’t come to Ireland for the weather!

We left the next morning to find the strong winds had turned to no wind. This was much preferable as the NE corner of Ireland has some of the strongest tides, running up to six knots through the Rathlin Sound and Northern Channel, and causing strong eddies and a whirlpool so dangerous it has a name - ‘Slough-na-more’. It was harmless when we passed through, being whizzed along at speeds over 12 knots on the GPS!! We had a brief glimpse of the Mull of Kintyre in hazy cloud but that is the closest we’ll be to Scotland on this trip. We took advantage of the flat seas and fair tide to get as far as we could and made it to Belfast Lough by 10pm. We anchored for the night in Ballyholme Bay then were off again at 6am to reach a sheltered harbour before the forecasted southerly wind picked up again.



So here we are in Portavogie, amongst a fine fishing fleet, mostly wooden boats. There seems to be little ashore apart from a chandlery, a shop and a pub, but the harbour is bustling with industry. As usual in Ireland, the harbourmaster is very accommodating and seems more keen to actually help us out rather than charge us. A novel experience after the south coast of England!
Considering the constant boat traffic, we were amazed to see a large number of seals, apparently fifteen of them, who actually live inside the harbour, fearlessly popping up between the moving boats. This is a boat maneuvering in the narrow entrance with a seal’s head just visible behind. Four of them followed him in at a distance of just a few feet!