From Bangor to Howth (and a nice encounter)
Despite our little mishap in Bangor, our spirits never failing, on August 2 at 08:00 we left the colourful houses of the waterfront to round Orlock Point and engage into Donaghadee Sound, on our way to Eire and Howth, one of Dublin marinas.
Bangor waterfront
In the first place, I wanted to make an overnight stop in Carlingford. But constraints related to tides in entering and leaving Carlingford Lough would have made us lose too much time.
The weather was nice, the sea was dead calm… and the wind completely absent.
The motor started again.
One may say that we could have waited in the fine city of Belfast, hanging around drinking Guinness, waiting for a favourable wind to push us south.
There were two main reasons why we had to go on.
The first one was that my wife Gina was to arrive in Dublin airport two days later, and I didn’t want to keep her waiting.
The second reason… well, don’t get me wrong. I like the Irish, they are gentle and helpful people with their hearts in their hands, and this I could countless times verify. It’s only that I qualify Guinness as a tar and soapy water mixture. I will probably lose a few readers here, but I make a point of being frank. Before any of you starts throwing stones, let me point out that John does not at all subscribe to my point of view.
Aim well.
So, this said, we motored. We motored 90 miles. We motored 16 hours. I was starting to regret not having bought a jet-ski, at least we would have motored at 20 knots.
Sunset over Carlingford lough
We nevertheless enjoyed the calm sea. Abeam Portavogie, we stopped following the coastline to make a direct course to Howth. The sea got choppy, wind against tide again, but nothing compared to the North Channel the day before. We had some dolphins playing with us for a while.
John explained me the dramatic Irish potato famine in 1840 and how his ancestors rowed to England across the same North Channel to survive. This poignant evocation gave a new angle of vision to our own crossing.
There was a magnificent sunset as we passed Carlingford Lough. We met a lot of fishing trawlers which we carefully avoided.
One of several trawlers north of Howth
Night had fallen when we passed Lambay Island, some 8 miles north of Howth. Night arrival brought some interest to the end of our passage. Spotting cardinals, lighthouses and buoys amongst the city lights was an interesting challenge successfully taken up, and, after having by mistake visited the fishing harbour, we were safely moored at midnight.
We hadn’t had a single chance to raise our sails.
Lambay island
I had planned to spend 2 days in Dublin with Gina.
Initially, she was to replace John, his duties ending upon arrival in Howth. But John and I had got used to sail together, and had agreed to cross the Irish Sea back to Wales to make his return home easier.
The rest of the voyage along the Irish coast was therefore abandoned, and new plans were made. Having John on board crossing the Irish Sea was a great relief.
As mentioned above, John is a Guinness amateur. On the second day in Howth, he insisted on taking me to a local pub to fulfil his needs (he didn’t have to insist much).
What happened there was to give a new colour to our voyage.
We were halfway through our second round when a couple walked into the pub. We recognized each other: they were the couple who had helped us free China Blue two days before in Bangor.
I often emphasize on the sincerity of relationships that are born in marinas and harbours. I hold this as one of the blessings granted to people who sail. Some of our own best friends were met on a pontoon.
Mark and Natalia
Natalia and Mark did certainly not escape that rule. We spent the evening together, talking about our lives, about sailing, about everything. We had a night-cap on China Blue, then another one on Pardela, their own sailing yacht, a Bowman 40 built in 1989. A very nice-looking yacht, very lovingly maintained, that made me look with sadness at China Blue’s rather sorry state, and wonder if I would ever have enough love to give her to restore some of her past glory.
John had booked a ferry to cross the Irish Sea and visit his daughter in London. That same evening, the ferry and its fare were with no hesitation forgotten, as Natalia and Marc offered him a passage on Pardela for the next morning. They had a fantastic sail to Caernarfon, Wales. Fair wind, following sea, blue sky and sun. All those conditions we would have liked to have, and that we would not meet again (but this, we didn’t know).
John enjoying sailing Pardela!
Before Gina arrived, I had given her a very negative description of the condition of China Blue. I believed this way she would find out it was not as bad as I had told her.
It didn’t work out. She got very disappointed when I presented her the boat. Knowing that all my leisure savings (and more) had been thrown into such an uncertain project depressed her, which consequently depressed me.
It was raining heavily. The cockpit drains were clogged and as we stepped out of the companion way, we had to wade in a little swimming pool. Gathering all the courage we had left, we both tried to cheer up, and promised ourselves we would find ways to transform and improve China Blue’s comfort and liveaboard capability.
While waiting for John’s return, I installed a long waited for ONWA chart plotter which combines an AIS transducer. It felt safe to know that others would see us and we would see them, on night passages or in case of fog. Besides it would serve as a back-up in case my Android tablet failed, the latter having been my only electronic navigation instrument.
Us now being three on board, we could at last undertake our crossing of Saint George’s Channel.
We had spent 10 days in the marina, which was more than enough despite the nice and welcoming people working there.
We decided to sail to Caernarfon, where we would be welcomed by our new friends Marc and Natalia.
A bar marks the entrance of the Menai Strait that gives access to Caernarfon. It had to be crossed 2 hours before high water, so we had to settle for a night passage in order to arrive at the right time.
I had often told Gina about the charms of night sailing, the quietness of obscurity swallowing the boat, the peaceful starry sky and the magic glow of luminescent plankton.
We had John on board. We would be safe and happy.
Enjoyed this chapter very much as I am a bit Irish myself, Irish grandparents.
I’m not Irish, but at least my name is Patrick!
Thank you for reading and for your comments!