We left Dun Laoghaire Marina near Dublin three days ago on a favorable weather window and had two days of glorious sailing. We covered about 42 nautical miles and to stop for the night at Carlingford Lough (Lake). We motored up the lough and dropped the hook in an anchorage area outside of a very small marina near a couple of other sailboats. The weather was calm and settled with a light breeze before we went to bed. When we drop the anchor, we always activate an app called Anchor Pro which puts a geofence around our anchor and tells us if we have exceeded a set radius. During the night, the wind picked up to 20 knots and our anchor alarm went off. One look at my phone’s screen told me that the anchor was dragging so I roused Roman and we headed up on deck to reset the anchor. Once the Anchor was reset, Roman stayed up for a while to monitor and I went to bed. I made sure that he got a nice long nap when we were under sail the next day.
The next morning, we left Carlingford Lough and headed north again to Ardglass. The day was lovely and we had good wind from behind so we put a preventer on the mainsail and poled out the genoa so that we could comfortably sail downwind. When sailing downwind, the boom at the bottom of the mainsail is moved out to one side and it is necessary to put a line on the end of the boom to prevent it from swinging quickly across the boat if the wind shifts or our course changes. Appropriately enough, that line is called a preventer. We used our pole for the first time to hold out the genoa on the opposite side of the boat from the boom to maximize our sail area. I didn’t take any photos but I will be sure to do so the next time we have the preventer and the pole in use. At one point we were comfortably going downwind at 9 knots and it was glorious!
We pulled into Ardglass relatively early because the tides and currents were running in the wrong direction for us to go further. It was an adorable little town that made its living through the ages as a fishing port. As you first enter the harbor, the fishing port is to your immediate left and the marina is just a tiny bit further. The marina is run by a gentleman named Fred who is 93 years old, nearly blind and mostly deaf. He was a sweetheart and told us everything we needed to know about the little town.
There was also an old building named Margaret’s Castle which was right next to Margaret’s B&B.
The next day we headed further north to Strangford Lough. We had to time going through a point called The Narrows with the tide or else risk literally getting spit back out into the Irish Sea. We timed the tide perfectly and ended up going through with six knots of current at our stern and blasting through with a speed over ground of 9 knots. We tethered flight to a mooring ball for the night and had a very quiet night in a bay just north of Strangford Town. The next morning, we caught the tide and it literally did get spit back out into the Irish Sea, but that was our intention. Heading toward Belfast.
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