On Friday morning, with wind from the south, we left Burtonport and motored down the narrow channel to Aran Roads.
We conservatively hoisted the mainsail with one reef, leaving the headsail until after we passed through all the rocky bits!
It turned out that with the tide under us we were making over 5 knots over the ground so we left the genoa until we passed Gola island, when we could alter course and broad reach, rather than dead running. From then until Bloody Foreland (not me swearing, that’s its name!) was a reach with a good breeze and some tide with us, even some sunshine.
Passing Bloody Foreland we officially completed our passage around the west coast of Ireland, closed the South and West coast pilot and opened the East and North coast book. Bloody Foreland was actually quite low lying and nothing like as spectacular as some of the other Heads we’ve been around. Glen Head gets my vote as the best so far.
The wind started to die and within an hour was calm then within 50 minutes came in from the NE allowing us to sail again, into Sheephaven Bay.
The bay is completely open to the North but we were headed for a small bay called Pollcormick, tucked into the SE corner of the bay next to Downings and totally sheltered from SW round to SE. It’s only big enough for 1 boat to anchor, fortunately no one had got there before us. In fact, in common with virtually all our passages, we hadn’t seen anyone else all day. Once we’d anchored and got the covers on we enjoyed tea and tea bread in the cockpit in the sun, our regular end of passage treat! With loads of hot water in the calorifier David was able to shave off a few days growth and had a beard trim. Out of the breeze it felt almost warm! Next day we planned a short sail east along the coast then 10 miles up Lough Swilly to Rathmullan. We could afford a lie in to ensure a favourable tide, something we didn’t have to worry too much about on the west coast but much more important in the north. We were away by 10.50, motor sailing to clear the rocks on the east side of Sheephaven Bay. By 11.20 the genoa was unfurled and the engine turned off for the rest of the day.
As the tide was with us even in the lighter patches we were making over 5 knots over the ground so could continue sailing, the only problem being in the lighter patches we weren’t generating much power so the fridge had to go off!
The sail up Lough Swilly took 3 hours, it’s a long Lough!
By 16.15 we were tied up alongside the pontoon in Rathmullan over 10 miles from the sea.
Rathmullan proved to be a pleasant place to stay, we were tempted to stay longer and do some walking but at 20 euros per night on the pontoon with no facilities we decided to move on. We did manage a nice meal at the busy Beachcomber pub in the company of 4 local sailors who helped with the tidal planning for rounding Malin Head in the morning. Our original plan was to aim for Portrush, 39 miles away, but were told that the harbour was being dredged and would be closed so Greencastle, at the head of Lough Foyle, became the alternative. Both destinations needed a start 2 hours before local high water, 09.35 according to our friends.
Sailing Lacerta 