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Another day off – Rick arrives later so fancied getting to know Belfast a little.  When anyone has said “Belfast” to me before, I always thought of IRA, bombs etc etc,so I John, Mike and I decided to go and find out for ourselves!

Wow!  What an interesting city.  It is far more vibrant and no where near as run down as we thought it would be!

Having dropped the car off at Non-Budget Rentals, we spoke with the woman at the tourist information desk who gave us details we needed.  She told us it costs about £10 for the open top tourist bus trip, but suggested we try to get a good price by haggling, so when we arrived in Belfast and were almost immediately accosted by the rep from one of the three companies trying to get our business we were ready for him.

Are you ready for a touch of Irish haggling?  Ours went something like this-

Rep “would you like to come on a bus tour?  Its only £10

Me “oh thats far too expensive for us” (I was ready to say, how about 3 for the price of 2, but Mike interjected quickly with

Mike “how about £8 each”

Rep “How about 3 for £15” ………….what?  Absolutely brilliant!

The funny thing was – he was American!  He has obviously lived in Ireland for too long.

So we took the open top bus trip for a fiver each and it was worth every penny.  I took a number of photos – of the fabulous architecture, the dividing wall, the murals and Stormont.

Each of these structures depicts a famous ship which was built in Belfast – including of course, the Titanic!

Stormont and the grounds in the estate looked fabulous!  The commentary on the bus informed us that Belfast was one of the safest places to live, with one of the lowest crime rates in Europe – mainly because most of the criminals are busy running the country!The “Titanic Quarter” under construction.  So much investment in Belfast – this is set to be Belfast’s equivalent of Canary Wharf!You sit on a bus in Belfast and the strangest people get on – can you see Superwoman and Supermario and all their friends?

Hurricane Higgins – a local lad!

One of the largest dry docks in EuropeI try to imagine how life was for the families in these streets during “The Troubles”

I grew up hearing stories of the troubles in N Ireland and people like

Bobby Sands

Peace Street – people are encouraged to write their messages on this wall – look down the street.  See the dividing wall

It sometimes felt obtrusive to take some of the photos at times as many of the murals were on the side of peoples houses and the walls of their gardens, often with the residents sitting out in the afternoon sunshine enjoying a cup of tea, it must feel obtrusive for them to have regular tourist buses drive round their streets full of people with cameras in their hands!

A good tour – well worth taking if you ever visit Belfast – but don’t pay £8!

I had an appointment at the Apple Store for another one to one lesson on my new MacBook.  So far I have been to Solihull store where it was purchased, then to the Bullring in Birmingham for my 1st lesson, followed by London’s Covent Garden for my 2nd lesson (incidentally the largest apple store in the world!) then to Brighton for my 3rd one!  The guy in Brighton said he saw my “file” and wondered why I was visiting so many stores.  He said at the end of our 50 mins together that he really enjoyed my lesson as I wasn’t boring like the normal clients!  He must have enjoyed it so much, that when I appeared in the Belfast store the young man – Aaron (they all look about 18 and were weaned from breastmilk straight onto computers I think!) told me he was looking forward to teaching me as it said on my file from Brighton that I was a lovely woman!

Back to the boat on the train – we’ve “done” Belfast and ready to move on and ready to meet our new skipper.

Rick eventually arrived about 9pm when we were just on our way to have our last pint in Ireland – it didnt take him long to store his luggage on the boat and join us to begin the bonding process………..Goodnight!

We now have 2 days off and are taking the opportunity to make best use of the time to explore the area.  We have hired a car and are just about to head off to the Giants Causeway…….catch you later!

Its now half past midnight – again snuggled up in my cabin and writing the blog for the day.

Fabulous day and we really feel we have taken the time to get to know Northern Ireland a little.  Mike, John, Chris and I picked up the hire car and found the internet price quickly inflated by the time we had paid the extra fees, but, undeterred we headed for the “Causeway Coastal Route” which is apparently one of the top coastal driving routes in the world.  We werent quite sure we would say it was that great, but were still very impressed all the same!

The Northern Ireland Coast with Dunluce Castle in the foreground and Giants Causeway in the Distance

Traveling “Round Britain” takes us to some beautiful spots, and you get a very different perspective of a place when you arrive there by boat.  However, you dont particularly investigate a place fully, and mainly scout around the edge of places so it was lovely to be able to explore Northern Ireland much more thoroughly.

The whole coastline is beautiful, we stopped off at Carnlough for a spot of lunch then continued until we reached Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

This bridge was originally built by fishermen as this area is part of the route the salmon take during the breeding season as they migrate across the Atlantic.  The rope bridge spans the 20metres wide chasm over the 30metre high drop – I realised how far that was when I heard how long it took for my camera lens cover to reach the ground as it fell out of my hand……… Yep – another casualty.  To date there has been 2 cameras, one mobile phone, pair prescription sunglasses and now this.  At least we are all intact!

Mike and Chris on Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge - just as I dropped my lens cap over the side!

Can you see my lens cap 30 metres down under Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

Irish Beauty

Next stop is the Giants Causeway – a fabulous area of geological interest.  It is designated as a “World Heritage Site” and has 40,000 basalt hexaganol columns formed during a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago.  The rapidly cooling lava contracted and variations in the cooling rate resulted in the striking columnar structure. Usually lava cools from the top down, but in the area around the Giant’s Causeway, the lava cooled from the bottom up, resulting in a cracking pattern that looks like it was man-made.

Giants Causeway

Hexaganol Columns

People dodging on Devils Causeway

Fabulous columns at Giants Causeway

The geology is interesting, but what I found of greater interest was the folklore which surrounds it.  Its the story, yes, you guessed it, of a giant!  His name was Finn McCool – a great name for a giant I thought! Anyway, as often happens with the Irish, he wanted to get into battle with a Scottish giant called Benandonner, so he built the causeway to connect him to Scotland – Staffa to be exact.  Benandonner accepted the challenge of battle and made his way over the causeway towards Finn McCool.  However, when he appeared on the horizon, Benandonner was much bigger than Finn expected, he got scared and ran home.

His wife was a quick thinker and dressed Finn McCool as a baby and put him into an oversized cradle.  When Benandonner arrived, she showed the giant her “baby” – he was aghast, “oh my, if thats the baby, how big must the daddy be”  and scarpered!  They always say behind every good man is a good woman!  A lovely story isnt it!

As Benandonner ran, tearing up the causeway as he went – today you can only see the start and the finish.  We have seen the start now, and we will in a few days see the finish when we visit Fingles Cave on Staffa – something to look forward to!

The Giants Causeway is absolutely beautuful, and I tried not to feel frustrated by the hundreds of people walking all over it like ants!  I really wanted the place to myself, a bit mean I know.  I would have been happy to share it with my companions!

From the Giants Causeway we visited Dunluce Castle,

Dunluce Castle

The coffee shop at Dunluce Castle in the distance you can see it looks like someones living room!

Dunluce Castle

by now the light was getting low and it looked beautiful in the early evening.  From there we wound our way towards home once more but got very excited when we passed by a huge ASDA.  Knowing that our trip after Monday will take us to the Scottish Isles and Outer Hebrides and little chance of any ASDA price, we darted into there.  Tins of peas at 14p cant be left on the shelf!  £230 later we left with our car packed to the gunnels!

Back to the boat and we did a great job at storing all the tins, packets of pasta and rice under Mike and John’s bunks – fabulous – we wont go hungry!

By the time this had finished, it was 11pm, just time for a bit of supper then crash out!  Goodnight!

A lovely start to the day with glorious blue skies and sunshine to start the day, I had been awake since 4 with my brain whirring, and eventually got up about 7am and put the kettle on.  Then Fred and I went in search of a greasy spoon for breakfast. We found a cafe, not yet opened, but the owner was being dropped off by her husband – who just happened to be the landlord of the pub we met last night – Ardglass is indeed a small community!

We eventually found a cafe which was open and serving and sat enjoying a latte looking across the sea and enjoyed the sunshine

Early morning Latte! The sign on the window warned us not to lean on it as it was broken.........

The marina is very shallow indeed and we could see the bottom.  RBE has a draught of 2.1metres so this was a little worrying, considering we actually wanted to motor out.  We therefore had a leisurely morning whilst we waited for low water to pass and for the water level to rise a little.

Chris beautifully steered us out of the marina – she is skipper for the day!

Chris as skipper under the watchful eye of Fred!

As soon as we were clear of the marina, the sails once more went up and we made best use of the little wind which came our way.

A little into the journey, I became weary having woken in the early hours, and went to my cabin to take a nap – as I lay there I wondered who on earth was on the helm as the boat took a sudden and distinct turn – we narrowly hit a basking shark!  Typical, I’ve been waiting to see one of these and I miss it.  Glad the boat missed it too as it might have taken our keel off – and I imagine given the basking shark a bit of a headache too!

As we steer along the Northern Ireland coast, you can still see the Isle of Man in the distance, but you can also see Scotland too – I’ve never before appreciated the close proximity of these three places before.

We were soon tormented by a plague of flies which suddenly descended upon us covering the boat.  They soon stopped, then died and I swept them all away, an hour later, we entered yet another cloud of them – I think I might go mad and have a shower this evening – and I only had one yesterday, I really hope you dont think I’m getting too fussy!

Its now 4.30, (Im just flicking yet another fly off my screen as I type this) and we are nearing Bangor.

This is our last destination with Fred – he is flying back home to the bosom of his family in the early hours and we will then await the arrival of another victim, sorry, skipper, on Sunday – welcome Rick – do you realise what you have in store?!

Belfast Lough

Bangor, Belfast

A lovely trip into Bangor, and Chris steered the boat to the fuel pontoon, she filled us up and I then steered the boat into our berth – for the first time – it only took me 2 goes!  Chris and I then connected us to the main then cleaned the boat – its girl power day today!

I know this might seem a little over the top – but I went for another shower, a little excessive as it was only yesterday I had one, but there you go!  Imagine my delight when I found there was actually a bath!  Wonderful how simple pleasures can make you very excited!  Unfortunately, there was very little hot water, but I still insisted in lying in the lukewarm soapy water for as long as I could before I hurried into the shower to warm up!

Back to the boat just in time to find Mike concocting another gastronomic delight!  He is very nearly trained, and will get his certificate of competence from me once he has improved on his lumpy mashed potato stage!

Dinner finished, Fred hassled like mad for signatures on all our logs before he leaves us, then head out to the pub.  We found a bar with loads of atmosphere and some guys doing an acoustic set

Some talented locals

and interesting characters and women drinking cocktails from tea pots.  I met a woman who had a fabulous wolf whistle, and we must have looked very attractive as she tried to teach me how to do this complete with tongue sticking out and fingers pressed into awkward places – I failed but will try to do my homework!

More Guinness!

I made a new best friend, in fact, he became the new best friend for the whole of the crowd in the bar.

Irish Characters - we meet so many of them!

he grabbed my camera and insisted on having his photo taken with me!

Back to the boat at 1am – just in time for Fred’s early night as he is getting up at 4.30 ready to catch his plane home! I bet he is going to love his three and a half hour slumber!

Goodnight!

Its nearly noon and I’ve found yet more free internet access, well, its nearly free as I’ve purchased a coffee! Yesterday I was in a really old fashioned library – it was fabulous, with the librarian really spending time with the kids, helping them with their research and telling them local stories and not minding a bit if anyone talked!

We are leaving soon to head back to Ireland and moor at a place called Ardglass….see you there!

Its nearly noon and I’ve found yet more free internet access, well, its nearly free as I had to purchase a coffee to be here! Yesterday I was in a really old fashioned library – it was fabulous, with the librarian really spending time with the kids, helping them with their research and telling them local stories and not minding a bit if anyone talked!

We are leaving soon to head back to Ireland and moor at a place called Ardglass….see you there!

Kids walk on water in the Isle of Man

Peel as we exited the marina

Peel, Isle of Man

Its now 2.30pm and we are having a gorgeous sail away from the Isle of Man.  The weather is gorgeous, with a lovely 12 knot wind driving us forward, making good progress in the sunshine.  Mike is the skipper for the day and he has everything in hand.  Here he is making his first VHF broadcast!

Mike makes his first VHF broadcast

Living on a boat for so long does change the way you view things in life.  For starters, just thinking about possessions.  I have my own cabin, and whilst its luxurious in terms of living on a boat, its a very small personal space by most standards, and has just a little cupboard and a shelf for storage.

I’ve nicely filled my cupboard, yet have very few things with me really, however, if I were to re-pack, I could easily halve the items I’ve brought.  It makes you think about what you really need to exist in life.  We surround ourselves with so many possessions, we are so very lucky, but what do we really need?

The other thing is washing!  I always used to change my clothes everyday, now I make things last a few wears; I used to shower twice a day, now its more like twice a week – and I’m absolutely fine – well, at least no one has made any comments, and people still seem happy to sit next to me at dinner!

When you are busy at work, you just get your head down and carry on with the hum drum of life.  Sailing however, gives you lots of time to think about things and work out what is really important in life.  Many of us on this trip on RBE have said it has changed us in some ways – maybe it is because of the time we have to think?

We are all strangers brought together by a desire to learn to sail and to take a life changing experience, as such, we have to learn to get along with one another and live harmoniously in a confined space.  Like learning to sail, this can also be more of a challenge for some than others, however, I think I have made some lifelong friends on this journey.

Its now midnight – and Im updating the blog – have just read through what I typed earlier today and realise I must have been in a philosophical mood earlier – sailing does give you time to think indeed!

Our sail was lovely and we only had to motor for the final part of the journey.  Reaching Northern Ireland, we can look back and still see the Isle of Man – much better visibility then when we sailed there the other day.  Bringing a 45 ft yacht into a marina is always an interesting business and very challenging (there goes that “C” word again!), however, this time we had been given the choice of 2 berths, both side by side.  Remember when you learned to drive a car and went shopping – were you like me and tried to park miles away from the supermarket as you looked for 2-3 spaces together just to make it easier – its no different with a boat really – so we were in luck today.  However, as we approached the berth, the harbour master raced towards us and indicated to another berth which was a tight squeeze – right next to his boat. With just a “little” help from Fred, and the harbour masters boat narrowly missed, we safely tied up.

We have since discovered this “gentleman” whom we thought was the harbour master was no such thing at all, and we have yet to understand his motivation – we do meet some strange people!

Completing our passage safely, Chris radioed Belfast coastguard to inform them we had safely arrived

Chris makes her first VHF broadcast!

We took a little walk into the town whilst Mike cooked up another gastronomic delight – with only 2 days of cooking under his belt, he is under minimal supervision.

I forgot to mention last night that our skipper, Fred cooked for us – a fabulous rissotto with queenie scallops – here he is cooking

I didnt actually believe Fred could cook!

I think you should go onto "Come Dine With Me" Fred

One of the loveliest meals I’ve ever had – sorry for forgetting to mention that Fred!  Anyway, back to this evening.  Ardglass is a pretty little place, and looked very photogenic in the fading light of day

Ardglass Marina

Ardglass Marina Office

The Ardglass Vikings

I want one of these boats!

I found a lovely castle named after my very dear friend Jordan!

Jordan - you have your own castle - you are a princess indeed!

And eventually found a pub

We found a pub!

which had its own well

Well oh well!

As well as a friendly landlord who chatted away to us, and we almost understood what he said!

The meal was fabulous, thanks Mike!  Whilst the guys went off to the pub, Chris and I settled down to a DVD together.

Time to sail tomorrow to the last destination of this leg of the RBE – Bangor!  I got very excited when I saw this itinerary for this trip as I really wanted to sail through the Menai Straits, but had no idea there was a place called Bangor in Northern Ireland………better look at the map, sorry, chart!  Goodnight!

True to his word, by the time I emerged from my cabin, Mike had the kippers cooking in the oven – imagine the glorious smell which emanated!

Fresh Manx Kippers for Breakfast!

We all enjoyed kippers for breakfast, in fact, we enjoyed them all day long as they repeated on us.

The kipper factory is right by the marina and smokes along all day.  I think it provides the smoked kippers for the UK, and mysteriously, seems far more expensive bought locally than buying it elsewhere – say Brixham!

The Kipper Factory!

Having recovered from breakfast, Fred, Mike and I went for a lovely walk taking us from the marina

along the cliffs along the coast.  There was a very strange smell as we walked along, and then realised it was the fact the path was lined with the shells of the local “Manx Queenies”

Queenie Scallop shells line the pathway - smells lovely!

and just a little way up, we saw the cliff edge where they were obviously dumped down.

A lovely walk, really worth the effort to see the view across Peel, out to sea and across the peaks of the IoM.

We looked down and could see “Round Britain Experience” looking resplendent in Peel Marina!

We enjoyed the walk to the top, and whilst Fred slumbered, we photographed!

Looking out to sea, we could see another yacht making the same journey we made yesterday

A little stroll back down the hill…….

Back in Peel now, and the boys needed icecream.  We found John who was sitting on a bench looking out across the beach with just the same idea!

I love sitting in places, watching the world and its people go by.  Some call it “people watching” it can be most interesting and amusing, this time was no different.  During the half hour we sat on this bench, a couple walked along, I had my legs crossed and their dog was far too tempted by my foot in the air!  He was dragged away by the owner in the nick of time as he mistook me for a lamp post! Lovely!  A few minutes later,  an elderly woman in a electric wheelchair came by, stopped right by us and informed us she had a hair on her face which was tickling her and had possibly got stuck in her nose piercing……I had a little chuckle inside, and, knowing Fred is a little squeamish, realised I could have a little fun here!  Some 10 minutes later, and Fred standing some distance away by now looking a little green, we discovered how she had gained that piercing and where her others were and many more intricate details about this local character called Norma. Knowing I couldn’t push my luck any further, I made noises about us needing to leave to take lunch, and she took my hand and told the guys that I was a special lady as I had “brought so many babies into this world”  (in case you don’t know, I am a midwife!)

Time for some lunch now, then find somewhere to go that offers wifi where I can! post this blog!  I think I need to find a little more of the local culture and will visit the museum later,

and might even book onto the ghost tour which start 9pm DEAD!

PS. Found a local coffee house just for Duncs…..

The boys, true to their word, got up at 4.50 to weigh anchor and ensure we get off nice and early to head to the Isle of Man.  What, us girls ask, took them so long as we didnt actually leave until 5.40?  Can it be the need to clean and preen? Time to apply vast quantities of face cream? Ensure all the milk gets used up on large portions of breakfast cereal? Search for the piece of paper where the passage plan was written last night?  Methinks its a combination of all four!

No reason to complain of course as us girls emerged from our slumber to find some very “moist” boys on deck sailing. We took our time to breakfast (sans milk – thanks boys!) and get ourselves ready and by 10.30 we timed it beautifully as the rain had stopped!

We, as always, sailed when we could, and this time was no different and with just a few knots of wind we continued our way to the IoM.

The timing of our arrive at Peel is important, as the entrance is time dependent with a flapgate and swinging pedestrian bridge which allows boats to enter and exit 2 hours either side of high water.

In the nick of time we arrived at Peel, with a gorgeous approach guarded by a fabulous castle

Its a very pretty place to stay, made so much better by the fact the sun has come out.  Time to sample the local beer

Popped to the toilet and placed my camera on the shelf above the toilet – it was beautifully designed, for as soon as I turned my back, the shelf slipped to a lovely 45degree angle and let my camera slide effortlessly into the toilet!  Its now ruined – fantastic!  No worries blog followers – for I have another, but not one I can easily pop into my pocket to capture some of the special little moments!

Back to the boat now to “assist” Mike as he prepares tonights gastronomic delights – thai curry – beautiful! He is learning to sail AND to cook!

Time for a little stroll up the hill, I got fed up of waiting for the guys to get ready, so set out by myself – I went up the hill along the coast – and they went straight to the pub.  I had a lovely walk and towards the end, a gorgeous spaniel bounded up to me excitedly and had a little lick of my leg, not far behind him was his owner (Brian) who bounded up to me exactly the same, and just stopped short of giving me a lick too!  He walked along with me for 10 minutes, a local guy, and in that short time I could write his life history and have since pointed out to everyone where he was born, raised and where he now lives – I love meeting local characters as we travel around!

I finally escaped Brian and caught up with the boys at the pub.  We were all so tired that we were virtually falling asleep around our drinks so it wasnt long before we headed back to the boat to rest our weary heads once more.  Day off tomorrow and Mike has promised kippers for breakfast! Goodnight!

Wow! Already 4 weeks since we set off from London to start this journey – its incredible.  Off we go to head for the border between Eire and N Ireland – catch you later!

Wow! Already 4 weeks since we set off from London to start this journey – its incredible.  Off we go to head for the border between Eire and N Ireland – catch you later!

Well on our way to Carlingford Lough now, its 4pm and it has been a very relaxing day.  As we left Howth the sea was the calmest I think I have ever seen, the sea like glass with barely a breath of air – fabulous – if we werent learning to sail!  Ah well!

Ireland's Eye

As we continued, the ripples crept into the water as the wind increased to a stupendous 2-4knots – all we needed to get the sails up.  Chris and I managed to distract the men whilst we set the sails as they tend to flex their muscles and get stuck in whilst we are left to stand around and look pretty (or at least try!).  I ran towards the mast to “sweat” the main up as Chris pulled the halyard.  Another strange nautical term – “sweating”!  I asked if it was more “perspiring” as I am a girlie, but having completed it I think sweating is definitely the correct term!

We managed a speedy 3-4 knots at our best pace, then to a calm 2knots – no problem as we had loads of time to continue to Carlingford to arrive in time for low water.

A gentle passage lulled most off to sleep

John sleeps

Fred takes the opportunity to rest too!

See how difficult it is to steer the boat!

Pete tries to deplete the fish stocks!

I just take sneaky photos.....

Interesting to look our as we go to spot the local wildlife as you never know when a dolphin or porpoise pop up – the dolphin usually more lively and less shy than the porpoise

Can you see the shy porpoise?

We listened to discussions on the VHF re a pan pan about a missing vessel – should have been in N Ireland from Liverpool this afternoon – a guy in a 26ft yacht that no one had heard from or seen for a couple of days.  Interesting to get a lesson from the Irish sailors on their interpretation of “Brevity, Clarity and Discipline” – consider many of them need to attend a VHF course at SWMT taught by Duncs!  Lovely listening to their dulcet tones as they wish everyone “good day” and have a little bit of banter on Channel 16!

We were practicising our “pilotage” today – and Carlingford Lough is a good place to practice this as it is a long channel piloted by a series of buoys with a south cardinal at the entrance – with its own impressive lighthouse!

Lighthouse at Carlingford Lough entrance

The first buoy marking the pilotage into Carlingford

Navigators at work

One sailor decided he was going to overtake at the entrance – Fred waved to him then gave us a lecture on etiquette which went like this

“3 questions 1. Whats the name of the stuff all around us you breath in?  2. Whats the name of the stuff which grows on your head?  3. Whats the name of the home of a fox?  Put those three words together when you greet fellow sailors on the water…….have you worked it out???  We are going to miss you Fred!

Carlingford Lough forms part of the boundary of Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and is really very pretty.  We have anchored for the night right at the top in a lovely cove and it is extremely peaceful.  Everyone is asleep now (chorus of snoring in surround sound!) and I’ve taken a walk up on deck to look at the lights around us and tried to work out how I would steer the boat out if I needed to in the dark.  There are so many lights around with the whole succession of buoys – its like Christmas with the red and green lights!  I saw a white light I couldnt identify – then realised it was a car – what is that not on the chart?

We are heading to the Isle of Man tomorrow and the boys are getting up  between 4 and 5 to raise the anchor and steer us out – Chris and I are going to continue our beauty sleep and let the testosterone vent itself without us for once – our time will come so watch out boys!

Goodnight!

Good morning everyone! Its 9am and we are well on our way to Dublin. Howth to be exact and we have had lots of discussion about its pronunciation!

There is a very strange entry in the log from last night

This reads –

Log entry - "0400 Boarded by pirates but bravely repelled by skip"

Well, our decision to lock the boat if we headed into town last night was correct – for at 4am this morning, a guy decided to board our boat and take a little nosey into the open hatch. Fred shouted out in his most manly sounding voice to “go make jerky movements elsewhere matey” and he scarpered! Thanks Fred – you are a treasure!

We were very lucky today, we caught a nice gentle South Easterly as well as beautiful sunshine – with no rush – we had a gorgeous sail to Howth – a lovely place just North of Dublin.

The coastline as we left Arklow just improved along the way and became quite stunning

Really enjoyed the sail. I’ve been taking lots of photos of everyone else,

so handed my camera to Fred and asked him to take some photos of me sailing – this is what he took –

So I asked him to take another!

Thats better Fred!

Great to be sailing in lovely weather We reached Howth, spotting some gorgeous properties along the way

Reached our destination in really good time so we made best use of time by practicing our Man Overboard skills – this time with a fender attached to a bucket which acts as a drogue (another new word I’ve recently learned!) It all makes complete sense, and Fred has made it look very easy. We were all quite relaxed about it, yet it is hard to imagine this piece of plastic in the water could be a person and we are responsible for saving its life! Important to get it right and ensure you get the boat back to the person in the water without running them over with a boat or scrambling their limbs with the props!

Howth’s a pretty place and a lively marina. It is a good tourist trap too and the local restaurants and bars are full of locals and tourists. We found a lovely place called “The Bleeding Stream” and enjoyed Guinness once more – even RoBE enjoyed it!

Going, going....

Gone - you were thirsty RoBE!

The bar was showing Gaelic football – I’ve never seen anything like it before, it looked like a combination of rugby, football and basketball. The locals were passionate in their support, and we joined in of course!

The locals getting very worked up about their rugby

Oh no - the local team lost - but Fred just gets on with sampling the guinness!

Another late, but very enjoyable night. The Round Britain Experience is more than learning to sail – it is an experience in itself! Goodnight!

We have had a fabulous few days of sailing, but unlucky today, as there is very little breeze and it is “right on our nose”.  This means we had to motor most of the day to Arklow.  This part of Ireland is very flat, marshland, with very few hills.  There are however, lots of wind farms – wish they could export a little to us today.

Pete’s turn to skipper – he took this role very seriously, spent time meticulously planning his passage and ensuring everyone took their turns at the helm avoiding exhausting anyone at any point in time – even if it meant telling me to go straight to the helm as I emerged, bleary eyed from my cabin following a lovely little afternoon siesta as it was my turn!!

When we were taught about tidal streams, Fred said that it was very important that we looked at the tide times for the correct port for the tidal streams chart – if you are a sailor, you will know exactly what I am talking about, if not, just trust me, it is very important and very simple – mostly, it means looking at the times for Dover – even in Ireland (strange I know, but just something us mariners have to accept!).   He also said, that although this is important, yet simple, it is a classic mistake people make!

You may remember I mentioned in yesterdays blog my teeny weeny little mistake – well it was this!  I looked at the times for Milford Haven rather than Dover.  I felt a bit of a twit as I promised myself I wouldn’t do this classic mistake……yet I did – but will never do it again (well, not until next time!)  Guess who did exactly the same today – Fred however, alerted by me yesterday became immediately suspicious about Pete’s tidal stream timings and discovered he was using times for Cork………ahem ahem!  NEXT!

I felt quite relieved not skippering today, and as we were motoring rather than sailing, it was more comfortable on the boat as we weren’t heeled over – so I set about a bit of domestics and washed the tea towels………South West Marine Training did say that this trip was an experience of a lifetime…….

Washing all done!

Arrived in Arklow at 6.30pm

and looked for somewhere to moor up, it was a little tight and we had to moor along the quay on the wall – we discovered what the fender board we had been carrying was for.  Chris brought the boat in (with just a little help from Fred!) and when the call came, I bravely lept onto the quayside to secure the bow line.  We had a welcoming committee however –  a true Irish greeting.

Having secured the boat, I spotted an Aldi – this delighted Chris who wanted some chorizo to accompany our meal.  I volunteered to go, but soon found I had 3 of the guys who joined me – Chris also wanted potatoes – so it took 4 of us to head to a supermarket to purchase this.  However, with 4 of us to purchase only 2 items, this task grew a little and we came back to the boat with……chorizo, yes of course, yes, and of course potatoes….but also – tonic water, limes, 2 packets stilton, one packet brie, packet water biscuits, packet digestive biscuits, milk, brown sauce, bread, 6 bottles of wine, a case of beer and a bottle of port! Phew!

We had planned to head into town to sample Friday night in Arklow – it looked a bit dodgy so we decided we would need to lock the boat up if we left it.  However, during dinner, having consumed a fair portion of the items just purchased (hic!) we decided to all stay on board

Its a tough life on the RBE!

The RBE - "it may even change your life!"

John giggling!

Our skipper has taught us many things!

Fantastic meal – thanks once again Chris, its 11pm and we are leaving at 7am to head to Howth, Dublin – so its an early night for us at 23.00!