2025 June 8th, Day 71. Kilnaughton Bay to Brown's Bay, Larne.

I was awake early and unlikely to get back to sleep so I left an hour and a half earlier than planned. The wind was lighter than forecast at about 10 knots from the NW but I stuck with the headsail only as I suspected it would get stronger as I got away from land. 

Eventually having been through some moderately turbulent sea caused by the wind against the last of the tide flowing NE past Islay I was proved right, but it was a couple of hours during which time I was finding excuse after excuse for not putting up the cruising chute each time rejecting the idea that it was pure procrastination or laziness preventing me. The wind then suddenly came in at 18 knots and gusting into the not forecast mid twenties. I was bowling along at 5.5 - 6+ knots under the double reefed genoa - less than the original #1 jib and making excellent time.

By about 06:00 the tide had turned, the sea quietened down and I was under full sail making good speed, that dropped off an hour north of The Mull of Kintyre but improved once I was past the TSS and came to the wind.

07:45, 2.5 - 3 knots of tide but not taking me in quite the
right direction (blue line = track, black = heading). A few
degrees off close hauled for speed in 7-8 knots of wind.

The wind lasted till 09:00 when it dropped to about 5 knots and backed to the SW so on went the engine and I headed more directly to Brown's Bay. Apart from an hour or so the engine stayed on until I anchored at 1 o'clock, although I could have sailed the last couple of miles in a renewed stiff westerly there was not a lot of point. I could have carried on to Bangor but there is more protection here from a veering wind and I did not expect the brisk westerly to last, and it didn't.

The anchorage.

Looking at the weather forecasts I doubt I will be going much further than Belfast Lough for several days. I may have to move into Larne Lough as the wind may briefly go round to the N or NW at some point, but the models do not agree on when and how strong it would be. 

Lough Foyle to Carlingford Lough (@12:00 Sunday)

24 hour forecast: Variable becoming south or southwest later, 2 to 4, occasionally 5 later. Slight or moderate in far north, but elsewhere smooth or slight. Showers, perhaps thundery at first, rain later. Good, occasionally moderate at first and poor later.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: South or southwest veering northwest later, 3 to 5. Smooth or slight at first except in far north, otherwise slight or moderate. Rain, drizzle or showers. Good, becoming moderate or poor for a time.

The UKMO domestic forecast has changed the strength and timing of a northerly wind 3 times already today. The Irish MO doesn't mention it at all.

51 miles in ten and a half hours.

Click here for Mondays adventure.

2024 May 14th Day 46, Ardglass to Browns Bay.

At 06:00 there was a light cold drizzle so I delayed departure as long as I reasonably could with a reasonable chance of getting to Browns Bay at a sensible time, Bangor is normally a reasonable alternate but would make getting across the North Channel problematic due to tides. Spending another day going to Red Bay would help but the forecast for Thursday did not look good with very light northerly winds that would mean motoring all of the way.

So I left at 08:15 in a light drizzle and a light headwind for the first few legs, as I approached South Rock buoy just before 11 the wind conveniently increased to a sailable 8 – 11 knots from the east so as I headed NW for Skullmartin and Donaghadee Sound that ideally I would reach at 16:00 as the tide turned favourable. The rain stopped at about midday at about the same time the cruising chute went up until the wind died as I approached the Sound when the engine went on and I entered the Sound at 15:30.

Whilst still in the fast running tide I again picked up weed on the shaft and / or propeller with smoke coming from the exhausted as before but also with quite severe vibration; I tried three or four times to clear it by moving from forward to revere gear which improved matters somewhat but did not clear all the weed. Not wanting to be carried further down tide I changed course for Bangor to anchor or go into the marina. I tried again and this time with a serious amount of power in reverse and this time it cleared and I resumed my trip to Brown’s Bay arriving at 19:00.

As I prepared the nights curry the Nicholson 38ft Ketch Galloper
that had been berthed next to me arrived doing the trip about
3 hours quicker than me.

A Coastguard exercise at Brown's Bay.

 

45 miles in ten and three-quarters of an hour.

Click here for Browns Bay to Gigha

2023 June 6th, Day 54 Port Ellen to Browns Bay (Larne)

6th June Facebook post: 

After a 5 o'clock start the engine was off at 05:30 and apart from an hour off of the Maidens it stayed off until Browns Bay. Initially the wind was 11 knots from the NE and I made quick progress under the Cruising Chute, for all of 10 minutes when it started to veer to the east and by 09:45 I had a reef in as the wind was 14 knots and gusting. Close hauled on port tank it was a bit of a struggle to keep clear of the Traffic Separation Scheme as the wind went further round to the SE.

A quick trip averaging a tad over 5 knots. No pictures due to the weather.

51 miles in 10 hours.

Click here for Bangor

2023 May 8th, Day 24 Ballyholme Bay to Browns Bay (Larne)

Light and very variable winds turning to nothing before I cleared Belfast Loch then returning at F4-5 an hour south of Browns Bay so I called it a day, I might have gone further but residual waves from the SE might have made the anchorages further north, that I have not visited uncomfortable. Islay tomorrow.

White Cloud in Browns Bay, last seen at Milford.

14 miles in four and a quarter hours. 

Click here for the trip to Islay.

2022 St Kilda Day 70 Dundalk Bay to Sorrento Bay, Dublin.

I left at 0500 with a light and variable wind, fore and aft sails initially then flying the cruising chute from a mile short of the Skerries 

Approaching the Skerries under the cruising chute.

45 minutes later and wind has veered so the cruising chute is
flying from the pole but with the wind drying the symmetrical
spinnaker would have been better.

Then the wind changed further and I was struggling to carry it past the skerries without gybing, which is easy enough but a bit of a pain with an asymmetrical sail already on the pole, I therefore took it down and ran past the Skerries under mainsail whilst I had lunch then put up the big symmetrical Spinnaker, for only the second time on this cruise.

Approaching Lambay Island with very little wind (hence the poorly
setting spinnaker!) screen shot from a very short section of a video
 on the "Sailing Swallow" utube channel (6.5 mins in)

This is the spinnaker working properly the next time I had it up:

As I passed Lambay Island the wind hauled forward and increased so that I was on a nice spinnaker reach well under control but a few miles north of Lambay Island I had a feeling about the wind, it had headed a few more degrees and steadied but intuition told me it was going to come further forward and possibly strengthen which would make the 60 square metre sail a bit of a handful so I decided to change back to the cruising chute which would be ideal with the wind 10 or 20 degrees further forward. 

Unfortunately, my intuition had partially failed as whilst I was still packing the spinnaker the wind swung quite a lot and the cruising chute had to come down before I had finished stowing the spinnaker gear. 

As I past Ben of Howth I could see on AIS that a large ferry was coming down the channel from Dublin and likely to be rather close so I furled the headsail and started to motor sail which was just as well as I had to slow down and head up to keep clear taking me very close to the Traffic Separation Scheme. 

There was 2 more ferries and a cargo ship also coming out so I motored across Dublin Bay. All three ferries were leaving for Holyhead one after the other, why they choose to leave almost together I have no idea as I don’t think there are any tidal restrictions at either end.

Almost at Sorrento Bay and as close as you want to be to Mugglins
with the tide running.

Too lazy to start sailing the last few miles I continued to motor, perhaps a mistake as I was hurting for fuel a few days later. As on a couple of previous trips I anchored for the night at Sorrento Bay which I quite like as there is plenty of things going on to watch with a sun downer or two. This time however it became a bit uncomfortable in the early morning, the sea apparently dead calm actually had a very slight swell from the south east and the period matched Sancerre’s natural rolling period to she would start to roll quite badly at times. However, given another early start it was not a big issue.

Sorrento Bay

46 miles over the ground in 12 hours.

Heading east.

2022 St Kilda Days 27 to 31 to Browns Bay and Islay

The forecast on Tuesday was promising:

Lough Foyle to Carlingford Lough

24 hour forecast: Variable 3 or less, becoming east or southeast 2 to 4 later. Moderate in far north, otherwise smooth or slight. Showers at first. Good.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: East or southeast 3 to 5. Slight or moderate at first in far north and later elsewhere, otherwise smooth or slight. Showers for a time. Good.

I left Bangor at lunch time as the tide turned northerly, it was rather slow at first but then the south-easterly set in early and it was a very pleasant sail to Browns Bay only using the engine for a total of 40 minutes to get out of the marina and to anchor. 

I would have liked to have done further north but the anchorages there are exposed to easterly winds.

Browns Bay

Looking north from Browns Bay, The Mull of Kintyre in the
distance.

15 miles in 4.5 hours.

The weather on Wednesday morning was lovely apart from a lack of wind which was a problem, the tide would be running south until after lunch at between 1.5 and 3 knots, with a light wind or even a F3 to 4 on a run I would likely be going backwards so I decided to use the engine until the tide turned then to head for a recommended anchorage on the south end of Gigha that has only recently been surveyed (by Antares) to sufficient detail to make it usable. This would also give me a nice reach to get to the Sound of Islay on Thursday.

The first part of the plan worked but the lunch time forecast put paid to Gigha with winds now forecast to be E or NE 3 -5 occasionally 6 and similar on Friday. A small anchorage with a complicated approach and possibly somewhat exposed would not be a good idea, so I opted for Port Ellen on Islay. As the tide turned a reasonable wind also set in, except in the lea of Kintyre, and I sailed all the way to Port Ellen.

Irrespective of the time I leave I always seem to encounter a 
ferry when leaving Browns Bay and sometimes on arrival. This time close
enough that I stopped to keep clear although in theory I was the "stand
on vessel" it does not seem reasonable to insist for a few minutes delay.

Passing inside The Maidens N of Larne.

The Mull of Kintyre.

Evening at Port Ellen, most of the locals don't have their boats in
the water yet.

I am staying in Port Ellen on Thursday; Friday & Saturday will depend on the forecast but it may be Ok for an uncomfortable beat to the entrance to the Sound of Islay. 

43 miles in 11 hours.

Update Friday 22nd.

The forecast seems to stay much the same with each update, this at lunch time.

Mull of Kintyre to Ardnamurchan Point - Strong wind warning

24 hour forecast: East or northeast 3 to 5, occasionally 6 later. Slight or moderate. Fair. Good.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: East or northeast 3 to 5, occasionally 6 at first. Smooth or slight, occasionally moderate in west. Fair. Good.

Bashing into a F5 or 6 up to the Sound of Islay and then anchoring In Loch Tarbert does not sound like fun, especially against the tide so if the wind drops sufficiently to easily get off of the pontoon I plan to move to the anchorage to save 2 days berthing charges and move off on Sunday when a not to early start will give me a some favourable tide to get to the Sound and still have sufficient time to get through before the tide turns.

Update Saturday: I got out of the marina last evening with no drama in a lull and moved to the anchorage. It was a good call not to leave today, I woke to the wind howling in the rigging and an uncomfortable roll on the boat, a while later when I turned on the anemometer it was blowing 30 knots decreasing to 20 knots over half an hour and it has been varying from 15 - 25 knots all morning. 

The lunchtime inshore waters forecast for tomorrow looks OK but is looking iffy on some models, at least in the morning, but if the models are right and it has dropped by mid-morning I'll probably move east and anchor for a few hours to take the evening tide up the Sound of Islay.

Slide show of pictures taken from the anchorage:

Click here for the trip through the Sound of Islay to Loch Tarbert.

Round GB 2021, Day 59. Campbeltown to Browns Bay.

I started off in cool but pleasant sailing weather with 9 knots of wind from the WSW. The forecast was equivocal and I was aiming for somewhere in N. Ireland with Stranraer as an alternate if the wind changed drastically.

This 40 footer left just after me heading north and did the
right thing in over taking to leeward although she was a bit close.

Sanda Island with the Mull of Kintyre behind.
An hour later the wind died and on went the engine.

 

I was not impressed with the pollution coming from this ferry
outbound from Larne. In need of a major service I suspect.

The Maidens about 5 miles from the entrance to Larne Loch.

The anchorage at Browns Bay at the entry to Larne Loch.

I was rather surprised when, in such a large anchorage,
this boat parked dead up wind of me and very close. Sure
enough in the morning I came within half a boat length getting
my anchor up and at one point had to rush back and put
the engine in reverse as the boat was making way through the
water from winching in the anchor and would have hit. With all
the engine noise the skipper must have been a sound sleeper or
reckoned it would be too late to do anything if I screwed up.

39.8 miles over the ground in 8 hours.

Slide show all of my pictures Campbeltown to Browns Bay, NI. Page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Click here for day 60, to Bangor.

Stage 9 & 10, Ardglass - Browns Bay - Port Ellen

A nice but tiring sail (much of the way) to Browns Bay in variable but generally brisk winds and close hauled or close to it most of the way. It was rather weird trying to identify what is left of RAF Bishops Court where I was stationed with the RAF in 1971/2 – not much is left, least of all the large radar head on Killard Point.

The wind got up close to Browns Bay and the shelter was marginal but with a wind change due shortly I decided not to spend the extra time going into Larne. 

46 nautical miles in 10 hours.

A tight (to keep out of the swell) and initially quite bumpy anchorage.

The trip to Port Ellen was a disappointment, a nice reasonably warm, sunny day but a light cold wind and I motored most of the way and was lucky to have secured to the pontoon and had power connected five minutes before rain arrived.

The Maidens, North of Larne

The Mull of Kintyre with more yachts at sea than I have 

seen at one time since leaving St Mawes.

Port Ellen, Islay when the weather improved the day after I 

arrived. Unfortunately all of the distilleries were closed 

to visitors.

Port Ellen marina had places to spare, unlike those on the

south coast where I understand that bookable berths are all

taken until the end of August, and the Scilly Islands are also

very busy,

50 nautical miles in 10 hours.

Slide show all of my pictures from Ardglass to Port Ellen. Page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Port Ellen – Loch Tarbert