55 12'. 5N 006 14'. 3W
Lord_rank
Fri 20 Mar 2009 14:26
LORD RANK Date: 9-13 March
Day 1:
We arrived to Lord Rank from various parts of the country. Dublin, Sligo, Belfast and Omagh-god! Without knowing each other we all remained really quiet- for ten minutes!, until the good sugar times began to roll- but more about that later.
So we had a safety briefing, and if you only remember, one thing you should remember when you are on a boat, it should be the list of rules that Mat gave us- in a (monty python style)!
So it was Phillips’ birthday, and he spent it cakeless, we banqueted on soup and sanwiches in celebration, and hit the high seas, well em, Bangor. We firstly put up the storm sails in anticipation of No storms, and rocked outta the port a 2 knots!
We carved our path along the coast, narrowly avoiding a ferry, and well managed by Skippy- he hates being called that! (And made the mistake of telling us that.)
Note to future readers, preparing dinner in lumpy seas is no fun.
So we motored along as a bit of a night sail, and dropped anchor in Red Bay, NI.
And slept.
Day 2:
7am start, whilst some of us arose with the sun, and some to the sound of Rolf Harris, other MGMT. Breakfast of cereal and frozen milk and sweet sweet sugar. Whilst we dined, Skipper raised anchor, and we hurried up deck and raised the sails, then took em down again, careful of twists in your sails people! Painful to correct! And listen to Andy!
We were put into our watches and started sailing, for real! From there we set off to the mighty NORTH, aside the Mull of Kintyre, and we didn’t even hear Paul McCartney.
Sailing for Scotland, we were intercepted by the Customs- we feared for our future and our post-it game, but in true seafaring style did not even miss a beat. They were terrified and left sheepishly, having not guessed who they were in the post-its. Amateurs!
In retaliation, the customs had to send in some big guns- two fighter jets circled around us like maverick in top gun. Unfortunately they couldn’t join in our fun, and sped off.
Up on deck, some taught the less skilful knots to the less bright people.
Hermits and Giants- are everywhere in Scotland, and live in the islands. We sailed into Tayvallich, and tried to drop anchor- all night, but its muddy there and the boat just dragged. The possibility of not making it off the boat to shore loomed as we had mis-placed the bung for the dingy. Some smokers were prepared to swim. We got to shore though in the end and convinced the shop owner to remain open so we could buty all his shortbread and a bottle of irn bru. Bangers and mash was a feast fit for a Celt, whilststill
trying to drop anchor, with repeated lack of success, we faced the dreaded anchor watch. Aaaaggggggghhhhhhhhh!
James watched it more than all of us put together, that’s what loads of coke will do to you. Nothing to report on the anchor watch- actually, we didn’t even see it now that you mention it!
The overall voyage went well finishing in Ballycastle.