With the novelty of such an early arrival, we walked into the harbourside village (0.5 k walk from the actual 'town' ) and got lots of information from the very helpful tourist office, to plan our days out on the Antrim Coast. After much deliberation we opted for the local bus to Ballintoye, to do the Rope Bridge, with a Rambler ticket to get us to the Giant's Causeway and back.  That all worked out well, apart from a long wait after doing the Rope Bridge because we hit the only hour that doesn't have the Rambler bus, so we lay on the grass and dozed in the warm sun until our transport arrived.

The Rope Bridge was made by the salmon fishermen in th 19th century, initially as a walkway with a single rope line, suspended across an 80ft gap between two rocky heads in order to suspend their nets and catch the salmon as they run through the gap.  It's now a major tourist attraction (National Trust, £5 a go), and there's a 1k walk down a narrow coastal path to reach the bridge (now with planks and handholds rather than a single rope) and cross the wobbling structure above the rocky water below to the 'island' where you can walk around and admire the views.  Cate, ever the adrenalin junkie, of course revelled in it, and Benj conquered a fear of heights by not looking down.  A very worthwhile trip.  Along the path Jude, an entrepreneurial rather hippyish photographer, had set up his pickup truck and was selling his work, very good fine art prints mostly taken locally, and we bought a nice print of a dew-spangled spider's web, taken near Torr Head, which we had sailed around only that morning.

From there the Rambler took us to the Giant's Causeway.  There will be a rather splendid-looking Visitor Centre (due to open next month), but for now it's another 1k walk (or £1 shuttle bus) down to the Causeway, which did not disappoint, considering that Dr Johnson had said 'It's worth seeing but not worth going to see'- but then he didn't have the Rambler bus!  You are free to wander all over the extraordinary hexagonal stacks, and the site (a World Heritage site) is not spoiled by too many information posters etc, mostly just a few nicely made wooden block seats engraved with the images of what the rocks contain from the legend of Finn McCool - the giant boot, the organ pipes, the camel and the granny rock.  We spent almost an hour climbing and walking around the site, taking photographs, and people-watching - there was a wonderful  variety of shapes, sizes, ages and nationalities to see and enjoy.  We got the shuttle bus back up to the entrance, bought an informative book on the site, and caught our Rambler back to Ballintoye, and then the local bus home.  The Rambler driver even stopped twice for us to get out and take a picture, or to point out some choughs which were nesting in the outlying rocky crags. (We are seriously cr*p twitchers, and have so far only identified puffins, shags/cormorants, shearwaters - though we don't know whether Manx or Great or what - herons, gannets, terns and now the rare choughs: when Benj did the east coast sail with Clive Metcalf, he pointed out so many different species, and we wish we could have him with us on this trip.)

We had managed to skip breakfast and lunch apart from the odd snack, and were craving fish and chips, which we duly collected from Morton's, adjacent to the marina, and ate in the cockpit, enjoying the evening sun.  The marina facilities include free WiFi and even a dedicated broadband network cable at a comfortable desk, so we both caught up with e-correspondence etc before retiring after 11pm.  A super day encompassing an interesting sea passage, a trip to the village and two major bits of sightseeing.  Glad we came to Ballycastle!