Gigha 2

We woke to rain and thick fog so decided to spend the day in Gigha. Probably the right decision as though the rain stopped the fog hung around till about midday. We hired bikes and saw around the island.In the afternoon we were joined by some members of the Scottish gaffers: Neil and Barry on Naiad and Gordon and Elaine on Tatiana 2. We had a jolly evening in the Boathouse (which is doing well out of visiting gaffers) and discussed the intracies of passage making in these unfamiliar waters. Unfortunately I didn't buy one of the charts needed for the Oban area when we were in Plymouth, but with any luck all should work out OK.

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A Rare Triple Transit

En route from Glendarm to Gigha, this view shows the TRIPLE transit of Ailsa Craig (looks like upside down V), Sanda island (looks like poached egg) and Mull of Kintyre, about 5 miles off:

Gigha!

After much pondering of tidal flows and possible winds we left Glenarm this morning at 6am and said
goodbye to Ireland. In fact the journey was simpler than we had expected. The wind was light,the tides were well behaved and we motored all the way. We left 1hr before high tide and arrived at the Scottish island of Gigha at 2.45 having had a fair tide virtually all the time. We picked up a buoy and rowed ashore to explore.

We felt quite pleased with ourselves as, although there are many difficulties ahead, reaching Scotland is clearly a significant step. Bonita's track on the map of the UK is beginning to look respectable. The Scottish islands certainly offer dramatic scenery and we were specially glad we'd decided to come to Gigha which is a charming unspoilt almost subtropical island.

Interestingly the island was bought from its previous owners by a cooperative of residents about 10 years ago and seems to be running successfully. They have tourism and the community earns money from wind generators which sell electricity to the grid. This seems to be an effective formula for local acceptance of wind generators, something which is not always easy.

Ended up in The Boathouse,a new restaurant by the anchorage - very good, with every table full.

The support piers for Gigha's jetty are showing their age...

Glenarm

After the labours of yesterday the crew needed an easier day. We left Carrickfergus about 6am and had a fine reaching sail with a fair tide along a scenic coast to Glenarm, where we tied up just as the church clock was striking 12 noon.

Glenarm is a lovely little town that prospered hundreds of years ago on the trade with Scotland. The picture shows D in the immaculate, impressively walled garden in the castle grounds.

There are many reminders in the town of its historic links with Scotland. There must have been regular traffic across these difficult waters in the days when seafaring was much less easy than it is today. The old pilot book refers to the best course to take for rowing boats to cross over from Northern Ireland to Scotland. That would make the Oxford and Cambridge Boat race from Putney to Mortlake look very simple.

Carrickfergus

Shortly after the previous blog entry was written the tide turned against us and a brisk NW wind came up exactly as forecast. We had a long beat to windward with plenty of water on deck.  We took a short cut through the overfalls off Lighthouse Island at the entrance to Belfast Lough, which made things rougher still. We eventually came to rest in the marina at Carrickfergus near Belfast. Fortunately we have been greatly refreshed by a shower and a visit to Macdonalds (so late that everything else was closed) and look forward to tomorrow.

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