Alistair goes to a concert; plus, all four home nations.
It was just after Christmas when I said to my good friend Karl Williams, do you fancy seeing Iron Maiden play in the summer? We had seen Iron Maiden play before, the first time in Stoke back in 1986! He asked where and I said Belfast, and we can stay on my boat in Belfast marina close to the venue. I assured him that crossing the Irish Sea, in summer, would be like his previous one benign trip on my boat from Chatham to Ramsgate.
On Friday 10 June, we met at Liverpool Marina, the forecast was a south/southwest force five/six to seven. My original plan of going to via the Isle of Man was not looking realistic. Instead, I decided to stay close to the North Wales coast and get some shelter from the land. We set off and motored out of the Mersey. It was in the Rock Channel that it started getting lumpy. Once clear of the channel, Karl thought it would be nice to feed the fish with his breakfast. He then retired to his bunk.
The wind was west-southwest force six when I got to the HE1 buoy off the Dee Estuary and the waves were building. I motored on and Karl suffered. It was after passing the Great Orme that the wind picked-up. As we approached Anglesey the waves averaged two metres in height, the wind was force eight. Occasionally, the anemometer showed over 45 knots; however, this may have been more the movement of the top of the mast. The boat had a steady heel of 15 degrees and 20 in the gusts with no canvas up!
We passed Point Lynas lighthouse on Anglesey, close to the lee of the land, and the waves disappeared. Karl re-emerged and we entered the very sheltered Amlwch Harbour. We moored in one of the outer ‘pens’ alongside a fishing boat after a passage of 51 miles.
The forecast for Saturday was for more of the same. So, it would be a bad weather day and explore Amlwch. One of the highlights was ‘Skyes Creperie’ my galette was excellent and filling.
On Sunday at 04:50, we departed Amlwch heading northeast in a force four to five westerly with a reefed main and full genoa. It was a fast passage with the boat making over five and a half knots through the water close hauled. It was bumpy from the previous two days’ winds. Karl opted for his bunk. By 07:30 we were in international waters and out of sight of land. At 14:00, we abeam of Chicken Rock lighthouse at the southern tip of the Isle of Man, the wind increased, and the genoa was reefed.
At 14:50, the wind veered, and it started raining. The engine was put on and we motored towards Northern Ireland. At 18:10, and after a 74-mile passage, we anchored in Knockinerder Bay, just north of the entrance to Strangford Lough for a rest.
We weighed anchor at 06:46 the next morning and reached up the County Down coast propelled by a westerly force three to four. The sea was relatively flat, and it was a pleasant sail. Karl said it was more like how I had advertised the trip. At 11:06 we were tacking through the Donaghadee Strait before dropping the sails and entering Belfast Lough with the engine. After an interesting passage through Belfast harbour, we secured to our berth in Belfast Marina at 14:20.
It was then shower o’clock and get ready for the concert. We walked around the city centre, had a meal, and then went to the concert which was a mini festival with the first band coming on at 17:40 and Iron Maiden finishing at 23:00. The show was excellent and finished with a replica spitfire emerging out of the stage while the band were performing! You had to have been there.
On the Tuesday, Karl disappeared at silly o’clock to get the first flight back to Liverpool. He had to see the Kings of Leon with his daughter in Leeds that evening. I caught up on my rest, chores, and some work. One of my chores was laundry. The laundry in the marina was free; however, there was only one machine. Every time I took my laundry to be washed, the machine was busy. I ended up reading a book in the laundry to bag the machine.
Early on Wednesday, my friend Matty Riley arrived on the 06:30 ferry from Liverpool. Matty had spent a week sailing around the Irish Sea in March with me which meant he knew the boat. We were quickly underway out of Belfast with a calm sea. By the time we had motored to Carrickfergus we were sailing, and the engine was off. We set a course along the stunning Antrim coast. It was also the first day of sun for the week.
For the first time in the cruise, the wind was abaft of the beam, so we hoisted my new cruising chute (spinnaker) and had fun getting the boat to go faster. We got confident and did a couple of gybes. On the second gybe we learned why racing boats don’t leave their anchors hanging over the bow. Fortunately, Matty is a bowman and soon got the tangle cleared.
We motored into Glenarm marina. The marina is small and modern. Glenarm is a village of just over 500 people, a castle, three churches, one shop, and two pubs (next door to each other). Whenever we passed someone, they would nod their heads at us acknowledging our presence which was different for us used to living in a city. Given the lack of take aways or restaurants, Matty made a chicken sweet and sour for our evening meal.
It was another early start on Thursday, so that we could start our return south with the favourable tide through the North Channel. We rounded the Mull of Galloway just after a lunch of burgers and pizza which probably wasn’t my best idea as there were large overfalls to surf down before we could head north to the village of Drummore. The village claims to be most southerly in Scotland.
The pilot book description of Drummore harbour was not positive. Apparently, a large gravel spit was blocking the harbour. However, I noted a comment in the Navionics app that the spit had been removed. I decided to give it a go. We got in with 0.6 metres under the keel and rafted up to a local yacht. First to greet us was Gavin from West Derby, Liverpool! Gavin has a 42-foot trimaran on the hard there and has been repairing it for the past eight years. He regularly drives 4.5 hours from Liverpool to Drummore to work on his boat.
We then met Cameron owner of the boat we had rafted up to. He was very excited as we were the first visiting yacht in the harbour this year! Drummore harbour had recently become a community trust. My visitor mooring fee receipt was their first. The next day, I had meetings with Alec the trust’s chair and Janet the trust’s secretary, and they explained how over 30,000 tonnes of gravel had been removed from the spit blocking the harbour. There is a demand for the gravel: a company came and removed the gravel free of charge making the harbour usable again. The harbour dries out which suited the bilge keels of LILLEBOLERO.
That evening we had a pleasant meal at a local pub. On Friday morning, the rain started. We went to the Mariner’s Café for lunch. It had Radio 2 playing in the background where the talk was of the heat wave in England!
We departed on the afternoon tide bound for Douglas, Isle of Man. We got some sailing done but the wind dropped as we approached the Isle of Man, and we motored the rest of the way. At the same time as we departed Drummore, ten yachts from Liverpool commenced the Isle of Man Midnight Race. We monitored their progress knowing that they would encounter the light airs we had on their final approach to Douglas.
We were all secure in Douglas by 00:30 on Saturday morning. At 05:30, I was awakened by three familiar voices saying ‘that looks like Alistair’s boat’ while supping beers. It was one of the race boat crews which had just arrived and were happy to have completed the course. The rest of Saturday was spent in various establishments with the Liverpool race crews describing how their race had started in sunshine but had soon become a cold windward slog before the wind died as they approached Douglas. We mentioned that we had put the heating on in our boat which wasn’t appreciated by the race crews. Saturday evening was a Race reception at Douglas Bay Yacht Club with lots of our Liverpool Yacht Club friends.
We departed Douglas at 01:30 on Sunday morning. It was north-westerly force five wind (sometimes more) with an established swell. We poled out the genoa and rigged a preventer on the mainsail boom and then pitched and rolled all the way to Liverpool. My autopilot does not like quartering seas which meant Matty and I hand steered most of the way. It was a good workout. On the way back we were regularly passed by the race boats returning to Liverpool as we all aimed for the afternoon highwater lock-in to the marina. It was final goodbyes at the Yacht Club bar for the Isle of Man sailors and, after 366 miles, it was the end of the cruise.
Alistair Roaf
