The Mull of Kintyre doesn’t have a very good reputation. There’s even a canal to avoid having to sail along its outer edge. We’d had enough of canals and locks, and since the weather didn’t look like it would cause any serious problems, we set off toward Belfast, sailing right past the Mull.
The plan was to time the tide and our journey so that we’d arrive at slack tide, and then ride with the current south through the North Channel.
It all worked out somehow, but it still wasn’t great. Even in these easy conditions we encountered nasty cross seas and since the wind had picked up to force 7 by then and we had to change our course, we had to retrieve the spinnaker pole. There are more enjoyable tasks in sailing than jumping around with a spinnaker pole on the foredeck in the middle of the night in cross seas like that.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and the next morning we sailed along the Northern Irish coast in beautiful sunshine.
In Carrickfergus, we got a spot at the hammerhead. Usually it is easier for us to dock there than trying to go backwards into a finger berth. That was the case this time, too.
Shortly afterward, another Albin Vega docked with two Germans onboard who had emigrated to Scotland years ago. We made plans to visit each other that evening and check out our boats. Zissi and I visited the castle (when buying the admission ticket, we were asked if we were “eligible for a senior citizen’s discount”— mmmh.. a new experience for us but something in need of getting used to) and walked around town a bit, then spent a very nice evening with our Albin Vega neighbors.
The next day, we took the train into Belfast. First, we went to St. George’s Market, where the skipper realized he was hungry again and had to have a Belfast bap (a roll stuffed with enough ham and sausage to last a year and a fried egg on top).
After that, we walked through the city to the Titanic Museum. For anyone who didn’t know (like me, for example), the Titanic was built here. Once again, they asked if we were senior citizens… I seem to recall that it wasn’t that long ago that you still had to show ID every now and then to buy alcohol… but I digress…. The museum was so great that we stayed there for most of the rest of the day.
Before taking the train home we did end up walking to the other side of the city, where the Peace Walls still stand (and are apparently sometimes still closed at night, despite the peace agreement). It was a depressing sight. After seeing the Titanic sink, the Peace Walls, and our recently received weather forecast for the rest of the trip, our mood on the way back was rather subdued.
We had the choice between setting off very early tomorrow and a bit of a good sail and getting beaten up later on, or setting off very early the day after tomorrow getting beatenm up from the start but having a somewhat more relaxed sail toward the end. From Monday on there wasn’t anything on the horizon for a while that would allow us to head south. Plan C would be for us to stay here and for Zissi to take a train from here to Dublin after a week to fly home, but that didn’t really appeal to us either. We decided on Plan B and spent another day in Carrickfergus, which I spent mostly checking weather reports, hoping to find something positive in them, and also submitting the Voyage Plan to the UK Border Force, since we were now leaving the country and heading into the EU.