| |
 |
Ireland
Covers the period August 13 to 19, 2000
From Stranraer up Loch Ryan and around to Corsewall Point at the head of the peninsula was a 12 nautical mile motorsail in light easterly winds, before setting off across the North Channel for the remaining 26 miles to Bangor in even lighter breezes. This was a relief from the force 7 and 8 gales that had turned us back the previous day. This channel is the northern access to the Irish Sea, with less than 25 miles separating Ireland and Scotland.
As we approached Belfast Lough, mid-afternoon, there was a surface fog that at times reduced visibility to less the a mile. Above the fog we saw a tower. We thought it to be an oil rig of some type and wanted to give it a good clearance. However, its bearing didn’t seem to change, even though we were altering our course southward to go around it. It didn’t compute!
When we were within a mile of it we could see through the fog that it was not a fixed oil rig, but a ship with a tall oil drilling rig in its aft superstructure, and it was slowly moving, but on a collision course! We then made a significant alteration to the north, giving it a wide berth. Within a half mile of it, we noticed a couple of sentry boats ahead of it on either bow. We were to later find out that this was Exxon Mobile’s GLOMAR JACK RYAN, the last big ship built by Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipyard where the TITANIC was built.
By 1630 we were alongside in Bangor Marina (54 39.9N, 005 40.3W), an attractive full service modern marina on the waterfront of downtown Bangor, on the south side of Belfast Lough. We had a pleasant evening with a local couple, Sandie and Gordon Leathern, on board their power boat, and next day took a local train into Belfast to do the "tourist thing".
A bus tour gave us an overview of the city, an interesting blend of modern and traditional, with a few medieval churches, a castle, and some ancient Celtic remains. We passed the Harland and Wolff shipyard seeing the deserted pier where Titanic was launched. The shipyard is experiencing hard times, and is in danger of closing up if it does not get some sizeable contracts, especially from the Ministry of Defence. The GLOMAR JACK RYAN was the last large contract they had and no more on the horizon. Even that ship had problems as there was a multi million pound lawsuit pending from Exxon Mobile against them for alleged delays of the completion dates.
The bus tour did not go into any detail about the sectarian strife, but it took us through the Shankill Road district and other Protestant and Catholic areas where there would be Union Jacks, Irish tricolours, and Red Hand banners defiantly proclaiming the stubbornness of each district, along with wall paintings exhorting pride for one side or the other, resistance and violent defiance of perceived enemies, and memorials to past atrocities and sacrifices. Many downtown street corners had steel gates along the sidewalks that could be swung across the road to section off parts of the city whenever there were disruptions or bomb threats. Just the month after we left, there was a renewed spate of sectarian reprisals in the form of maimings and killings, collapsing or at least confounding the "Good Friday Peace Agreement". A tragic situation.
In Scotland we flew the Cross of St Andrew beneath our Red Ensign courtesy flag. However we were cautioned not to fly any other courtesy flag in Northern Ireland, as it would be offensive to one faction or another.
The next day, Aug. 15, we had a most enjoyable car tour with Gordon and Sandie, and their delightful granddaughter, around Strangford Lough, an area we planned to sail to next. After a pleasant lunch at Gordon’s golf club, we returned to the marina and prepared to depart for an anchorage off Copeland Island around the headland. After refuelling (economical diesel at 32 p per litre) we left in light winds and overcast sky. However as we approached the headland we experienced force 6 winds from the south, which combined with the tidal currents in the area would leave our intended anchorage in an exposed position, and so we returned towards Bangor Bay. Rather than going back into the marina we dropped anchor at 1800 in Ballyholme Bay off the Ballyholme Yacht Club in a completely empty anchorage. We went below for supper, and an hour later came back on deck to find ourselves surrounded by dozens of dinghies and yachts manouevering around us, ready for the start of their evening race, using us as one side of their start line!
We had a great view of their races, and entertained on board 8 or 9 members who were out observing in motor launches or rib boats, and accepted our invitation for drinks. They reciprocated and invited us back to their club after the races. So we launched Sprite and joined them in their bar afterwards. One of the members was from Canada, living on our west coast, and with whom we have kept contact via E-mail.
Next day we were off to Strangford Lough, a large loch 10 miles long, just south of Belfast, to be entered through a 4 mile narrows with a tidal race up to 8 knots. However before entering we had to round the headland inside Copeland Island, no problem, then head south for the narrows. Again we passed the drillship GLOMAR JACK RYAN still out on her sea trials. We were motor sailing in light force 2 to 3 southwesterlies, heading for the narrows, about 10 miles out, when our engine stopped! We had lots of searoom, but we were in danger of overshooting the entrance to Strangford Lough if we didn’t head straight for it. We could not work out the problem with the engine. It had water, but was starved of fuel. An air lock? We did not want to take time to bleed the fuel line for fear of drifting past the entrance on the flooding tide, and then having to fight an 8 knot current on the ebb. So we sailed in through the narrows without engine power!
We had timed it correctly to enter on the flood tide, with a light west wind, bombing up the well charted narrows with an 8 knot current giving us a speed over ground in excess of 10 knots. We passed Angus Rock to port, and were heading straight up on leading lights the 4 miles from Bar Pladdy to the small community of Portaferry which we had visited the previous day by car with Gordon. Now what? How or where do we stop?
No one was around the docks in Portaferry to assist us to come alongside under sail in an 8 knot current. There is an anchorage diagonally up from Portaferry at Audley Roads that we thought we could manage. However, it was littered with mooring buoys, and we did not want to risk trawling all their bottom chains with our anchor rode. We put out a PAN PAN call on VHF indicating our course and speed, that we were entering the narrows past Portaferry under sail only with no engine power available, and requested an assist from any boat in the vicinity to help us into Audley Roads. The sailboat ZUMA was exiting at that time and came alongside to take a line to lead us to a mooring buoy in Audley Roads. They couldn’t stay to accept our hospitality and appreciation as they did not want to miss the turn of tide to go out on the ebb. Thanks ZUMA!
We were in! Once we bled the injectors, the engine started up and ran well. We assumed we had an air lock, the result probably of bouncing through heavy seas at a slow idle while motor sailing. On our way down, we had been heading south into a light southwesterly wind, with a south-setting flood tide, giving us a wind against current situation and creating rougher seas in the area.
Audley Roads (54 22.7N, 005 34.1W) is a lovely roadstead off Strangford Bay, guarded by the medieval Castle Ward with its lovely park grounds. We took Sprite over and had a conducted tour of the castle and wandered through the grounds and over to the well preserved but empty tower house of Audley’s Castle. These tower houses were small castles representing the power and wealth of the local big landowners in the 15th and 16th centuries, especially in the County Down area around Strangford Lough where there are at least ten of them in various states of repair.
While there we met Angela and Martin from Conway in Wales, on AUREUS, and Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger on HAWK from the USA who are fellow members of the Seven Seas Cruising Association. Evans and Beth wrote up a good article on their cruise to Scotland and Ireland in the November 2000 SSCA Bulletin.
A couple of days later we motored up the Lough to a free mooring buoy in Ringhaddy Sound, a large sheltered area with dozens of boats gently bobbing at their moorings. In Sprite we motored up past the sound to Whiterock where we tied up at the Downs Cruising Club, an old lightship converted to their clubhouse, skirted with mooring pontoons. It was tricky enough with Sprite, motoring through those narrow openings between the islands and sounds of Strangford Lough in five and six knot currents; I hate to think of what the local boaters and club members have to negotiate in their larger boats to get to this clubhouse in the main current stream. The people there were quite friendly, showed us around the old lightship/clubhouse, and invited us back for their annual sailpast the next day. Wow! Thinking of 30 or 40 boats negotiating those currents to sail past the lightship for the Commodore’s salute boggles my mind. However, we declined the invitation. We made our way ashore looking for Sketrick Castle which was closed for repairs, but had an enjoyable picnic on the castle lawn.
On our way back to VELEDA we got caught in a torrential downpour that soaked us quite thoroughly in the ten minutes it lasted. We were visited by a couple of local boaters who noticed our Canadian flag and came over to chat. Friendly people!
Next day, Aug. 19 we were off, leaving Ireland for the 42 mile trip over to the Isle of Man, to be covered in my next log.
Next Log
|
