4th July - Ardglass to Portpatrick
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4th July 2009 - Ardglass to Portpatrick
We arrived in Ardglass, cold and wet, on Saturday morning. We had a really rough sail from Carlingford as an easterly breeze kicked up short, sharp waves which made it hard for Arty to make any progress. As it was we sailed for seven hours and then picked up the tow. Huw and I were possibly wetter by the time we arrived in Ardglass than we had been in Fishguard... Water had come down my neck to the point where I could feel it sloshing around inside my HPX. I can't feel much, but my shoulders were swimming!
Getting me out of the boat was fun. There was too much water to lift me, so Sean and Toby opened up the bottom half of my top layer to let some of the water out. Most of it, however, was inside my midlayer. It meant stripping me of large amounts of clothing on the pontoon and ended up wrapping me in towels to preserve some of my modesty! Later on Saturday we all had to say goodbye to Sean, but we are secretly hoping that we will be able to persuade him to come back at some point... I certainly miss waking up to the quartet of Toby, Terry, Sean and Lotti all snoring at different pitches and rates :-)
In the changing rooms of Howth Yacht Club Jo and I met a lovely young sailor who, it turned out, lived in Ardglass. After meeting us Sophie had gone home and asked if there was anything she could do to help. As a result we were all extremely well fed and generally looked after by the whole Murphy clan for our entire stay. At the local GP, Malachy was particularly kind in making sure that my chest infection had really gone and made sure that we were all up-to-date with our medications. At this moment Sophie is racing in Germany, so I hope that all is going well for her.
We got stuck in Ardglass waiting for the weather and also for a part for my steering gear. Raymarine were fantastic as usual and, having located the part in Belgium, shipped it to us PDQ. It didn't take Toby long to install it and it worked straight away.
Finally the forecast was for wind from the South, force 3-4, which was perfect. We set out at 4 PM yesterday. Stena had kindly put the shore team on the fast ferry, which meant they would definitely arrive before us. It did mean that they also left before us, which felt very odd. We are so used to them seeing us off that it was strange for the boot to be on the other foot. It also left the boys with the problem of dressing me, although Jo had already done my midlayer. She has got so good at it that I forget that getting my top layer on is not an easy thing to do.
We said goodbye to the harbour master Fred and his dog Ben and then towed the Artemis out of the harbour. We put the sails up on a glassy sea and started sailing, but struggled to go forwards fast enough to reach our tidal waypoint. It meant a frustrating tow to that point. When the tide changed we tried sailing again, but there just wasn't enough wind to keep even Arty moving. It meant that we arrived in port rather a lot earlier than expected. Portpatrick harbour has high walls and ladders, so we used the winch on the Land Rover to get me out of the boat. For a first lift in what was almost complete darkness it went remarkably smoothly. The front wheels of the Land Rover were right at the edge of the harbour wall, so it must have been particularly nerve wracking for the ground crew at the top. Getting down will be a piece of cake!
Page last updated on 4 July 2009 at 00:43