The Friendly Isles

Each successful long passage increases our confidence in our planning skills having now negotiated a number of tricky tides and accessed harbours and marinas with very narrow entrances which have limited times of entry, dependant on the height of the tide.

We received a warm welcome from the other yachties in the marina, several of whom had horror stories of their passages to Ardglass or entrance into the marina.  We felt thankful our arrival had been a little more sedate, although stressful enough!  

Ardglass is a very small fishing village with a beautiful golf course that dominates the cliff top and, judging by the famous golfers who have played the course, must be a particularly challenging one.  The clubhouse is a beautiful building dating back to the 1400’s and gives a spectacular entrance to the course and village.   We walked through the village in 10 minutes, taking in the ruined castle and other lovely old buildings as we braced ourselves against the wind blowing off the Irish Sea.

After we were rested from our overnight passage we decided to head a few miles north to Strangford Lough.  Access to Strangford Lough is only possible at slack or incoming tide as the narrow entrance causes a strong current with whirlpools and shallow rapids to add to the mix of obstacles to avoid.   We had a fast sail to the entrance and arrived as the tide was turning in our favour.   We motored through the narrow channel, being swept along at speeds of over 11knots by the incoming tide.   A very odd feeling, particularly when trying to turn into a bay and sliding sideways at great speed, before being thrown out of the current and gliding into the bay.   A pod of porpoises welcomed us as we left the main and channel and we headed to Quoyle – a beautiful quiet anchorage in the south west arm of the lough.  We were surrounded by birdsong and a seal popped up to check us out before slowly disappearing again into the clear waters.

From the boat we could see a large standing stone on the top of a hill so we rowed ashore and went to investigate.    The stone stood in a field at the top of a hill with a wonderful view of the Lough and surrounding countryside.  These words were beside the stone:

“When most people see a megalith (standing stone) they wonder why it was erected. 

In Madagascar, where megaliths were apart of the culture until the 19 Century, King Andrianampoinimerina said that working together to quarry and transport a stone is proof of mutual friendship and contributes to happiness.

In 1995, a group of local people decided to continue this ancient tradition and bring 1000 young people together to celebrate the start of a new millennium by pulling up the 1000cm high Strangford Stone. 

They hoped, as the peace process was gathering momentum, to involve young people from all backgrounds in Northern Ireland to celebrate a lasting testament to a shared future”

The stone overlooks the peaceful and beautiful landscape of Strangford Lough and seemed a very fitting place to have a stone that represented peace in a place that has seen so much anger and destruction over the years.  

We had been offered the use of a mooring buoy in Ballyhenry which was a short walk from Portaferry, near the entry to the Lough, where there is a small town, mandatory ruined castle, marina and yacht club.   After negotiating the tidal stream again, we picked up the buoy and went ashore to explore.  

Portaferry is built along the waterfront and has a ferry regularly taking cars and passengers across the tidal stream to Strangford.  The powerful ferry glides and skids across the stream at regular intervals.  We arranged to meet my niece, Fay with her gorgeous 2yr old daughter, Isla and spent a lovely few hours exploring Strangford and Castle Ward, a large imposing stately home built in the 1760’s with lawns rolling down to the Lough.  The buildings were used as the location for Winterfell in Game of Thrones and have become a popular visitors centre, although we virtually had the place to ourselves when we were there.   

We caught the ferry back to Portaferry with Fay and Isla where they dropped us off in town.   It was still early so we decided to check out the sailing club as there had been racing earlier.  

We were welcomed into the bar and soon met a number of members who regaled us with sailing stories and then invited us to the prize giving for the races which had taken place earlier that day.   The prize giving turned out to be over a meal of soup, bread and Guinness and, in true Irish style, none of the sailors who had won were present, so there was no prizegiving! 

We spent a lovely evening talking, drinking, laughing, being given a tour of the large clubhouse and making new friends, eventually rolling out the doors in the dark and rowing back to the boat.

After a few days on our borrowed mooring we had a lovely sail further up the western side of the Lough to Sketrick.  A call to the sailing club proved worthwhile and we were given a free mooring for the night.   We had just picked up the mooring when a couple came over to welcome us to the area and offered to drive us to the shops if we needed provisions.  This was followed a short time later by a fisherman who was interested in the boat and again asked if we needed anything.   We just love the friendliness, warmth and genuine interest we receive as we travel, but particularly here.

While in Sketrick we made contact with a woman I had been messaging through a facebook group “Women Who Sail”.   Hannah and her husband, Daniel, had met in New Zealand and lived on board their yacht for many years.   On a visit to Daniels family in Sketrick, they decided to buy a house on the Lough with a boatramp and boathouse and reluctantly sold their boat in NZ.   We visited them at home and spent a lovely few hours with them. 

Our final stop in Strangford Lough was Killyleagh.  We had met Barry and Jo at Portaferry Yacht Club and, on ringing them, they kindly arranged for us to pick up a mooring buoy close to the sailing club slipway.  On arriving at the sailing club there were large security gates preventing us from walking to town but, following a few conversations we were lent a security card, on the understanding we would return it in a few hours.   The Irish are wonderful people – I love their willingness to help and eagerness to talk.

Killyleagh is a beautiful village, dominated by a 12^th century fairy-tale castle which would not look out of place in a Disney movie!     The castle has been owned by the Hamilton family since the 17^th Century and is Irelands oldest inhabited castle.  The approach to the castle is up a gentle hill with lovely old houses, shops, cafes and pubs lining the street on both sides.   The entrance to the castle is a large arched gatehouse which was open allowing views of the castle and gardens.  There was a lovely sign saying the gates were open so people could enjoy the view but asked for respect as this was a private house.    A lovely gesture and so unusual in these days of high security and putting up big fences so only the privileged have access to historic buildings.

As we walked back towards our dinghy we said hello to a man sitting on his front porch looking after his grandson.  We soon realised the man we were talking to, Clive, was Barry’s father and it was Clive who had organised our mooring for us.   The young boy was Barry and Jo’s son.   After a short talk, Clive asked us where we were heading next and on hearing we were going to Belfast he told us his brother, Mark was Harbour Master at the marina.   Without another word he picked up his phone and called Mark, telling him we would be arriving the next day and booking a space for us in the marina.   With that we went on our way, loving Killyleagh even more!   Our final act before going back to the boat was to return the security card which we did with great appreciation for the trust and hospitality we were given. 

While we had been in Strangford Lough we had tried to sort out the issue we were having with our chartplotter.  We made contact with Billy, who had fixed our autohelm when we were in Falmouth.   Billy suggested a way to fix it which seemed to resolve the problem, but caused another one.  While trying to fix this problem the memory card with the UK charts became corrupted and, after several calls to Navionics, they agreed it needed to be exchanged.   Our problem was we were going to be nowhere for long enough to get a new one sent and, without returning it to Milford Haven, where we had purchased it, we would have to make do with our other chartplotter until a later date.

We had an early start the next day as we needed to make sure we were at the start of the tidal stream at high tide.  This meant we could catch the tide going north as we exited Strangford Lough.  However, as our pilot guide stated, and was confirmed by someone I was in touch with on a sailing group, you have no idea what the conditions of the Irish Sea are like until you are out of the channel and then it’s too late to turn back as the strong tidal stream is against you.   Neither of us talked as we made our fast passage down the channel, not knowing what conditions we would face as we were spat out at the other end.