Tuesday 23 August. Ardglass to Bangor. 35 nm

A bright morning! All our fellow sailors had left by the time we were ready to go. Presumably getting the south going tide. The sea was still a bit roly to start with. Put the main up and motored for a while. It became obvious that the only sailing we could do would be under spinnaker/ cruising Shute. 8-10 knots from the south. So we went through that palaver again……. sail out from under the fore bunk, sheets out and rigged on the starboard side. It did help for a couple of hours but eventually the wind dropped and we had to give up and put it all away again! It was really pleasant though motoring up the Northern Irish coast, past the entrance to Strangford Lough , South Rock, and eventually onto Belfast Lough. Bangor marina is a huge marina, hidden behind concrete tyres on the south side of the estuary. Brilliant marina! We had telephoned ahead to book in, but as soon as we radioed we were given friendly berthing instructions… although lucky use of the phonetic alphabet as Julian and I both heard E9 as A9 ……… but that’s Ireland for you. Our ears are just different! Berthing instructions were spot on. They had even colour coded the tops of the piles for the various pontoons. So we were E ….. which was blue… every large marina should take note! We landed gently and had a lovely evening. It was sunny and peaceful . We had a Greek salad and watched celebrity master chef. Wonderful! I actually booked a restaurant meal at Scott’s of Troon for a week today! Just can’t believe it. Loving the thought… and yet scared at it being the end of our journey……in less than a week.😳

What I learned today…… that I do now think the effort ( of the chute) is worth it …….

Sue x