Glenarm, Antrim 54:58.16N 05:57.07W
20 August
The tides west of Kintyre and through the North Channel are
impressive and today whilst not right at springs was fuller than a normal
spring tide. This meant getting up at 5.30 for a 6am departure from Gigha which
should give us a fair tide all the way to Northern Ireland. It's a bit like climbing
onto a conveyor belt. It started gently with an extra knot over the ground
compared to boat speed and built steadily until we had 4 knots of tide pushing
us south and an overall SOG of 10.5 kts. As we left Scotland behind and headed
out across the North Channel the tide starts to lie across our route and we
perform a rapid "ferry glide" across a very odd stretch of water. One
minute there was big SE'ly swell, then it was calm but full of eddies and you
could feel them kicking on the rudder, and then it was just choppy but with no
swell and no wind. Anyway we didn't see it for too long because you blink and
you're in Ireland.
We also had some strange weather forecasting coming the Met
Office. I'm sure they were right, but the areas covered are so large and the
weather currently so volatile that they are almost meaningless. Certainly, if
we had been relying solely on the Met Office inshore waters forecast we would
have rushed back to nice Scottish Marina rather than face the F5-7 winds and
rough seas - with gale F9 warnings in SE Malin and the Irish Sea (ie both sides
of our route). As it was we had a very benign, if unhelpful to sailing, wind
of 2-5 kts (ie less than F2) behind us almost all the way. Just about what the
UGRIB program was showing.
Being dependent on tide meant that we couldn't pick our
weather and we drew rain again. That and general murkiness such that the radar
and nav lights were on for most of the Scottish leg. Things got a little
brighter as we neared Ireland and we even arrived at Glenarm in sunshine. This
all gave us dramatic and contrasting views of the Mull of Kintyre and the
Antrim Coast.
Kintyre from the North West
Mull of Kintyre from the North Channel
Garron Point and Red Bay, Antrim
Coming into Glenarm
Glenarm is a delightful place. There is a superb, old
harbour constructed originally for and from the limestone quarry. It was
restored as a millennium project and a small, 40 berth marina installed. You
couldn't ask for a more friendly or helpful welcome. The manager, Keith (also
the local lifeboat coxswain), came down to meet us and take our lines and gave
me a south facing (into the wind) berth in a very generously sized pen, and
then told us what to see and do in our short stay (walled garden and tea in
Glenarm Castle and walks in Glenarm Forest). The showers are huge, clean and
free (= endless hot water) and our overnight stay was £13.80 including shore
power. They also have lovely sweet drinking water - so I pumped out our tanks
and replaced the rather nasty Ardfern Water with some good Irish stuff.
