A window to Ireland

This week has been a little bit of an odd week, as we managed to get all the sailing for the leg over and done with on the first day. This was for good reason, however. Simon Rowell has been very good at giving us his thoughts on what the weather is doing and I have been quite impressed with his accuracy. He mentioned that we might get a window on Wednesday- Thursday to go across, and this is exactly what we got. It was a little weird for our Irish crew though, they came all the way to Scotland only to sail straight back again.
Wednesday turned out to be a perfect day for sailing. After getting a few jobs done in the morning we were briefed, fuelled and ready to set sail by noon, with the evening’s Irish stew already on the go. With SW winds of no more than 10kts we set off on a beat for Ireland. Beautiful flat seas and the light but constant breeze made for some fantastic sailing, and slowly the wind clocked round to the West, the WNW, bringing our course up to heading for Ireland, so we somehow managed yet again to sail most of the way on one tack – still starboard!
The crew were absolutely loving it, with each of them taking a turn to helm and mostly spending their time up on the rail or up at the bow, enjoying Scarlet’s dance through the water. Slowly the evening came on, and slowly we lost crew to the warmth of below decks, but at about midnight we had the whole crew back on deck to enjoy the night sail. We even had patches of clear sky letting us see the stars, and with a beautiful moon setting over Belfast and dying breeze, we slowly crept into Belfast Lough. We got into Carrickfergus at about 2am with a cheery but rather chilly and tired crew – it didn’t take long for everyone to disappear into their bunks.
Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children have been fantastic. Angela has been with us for the week, and what with the horrible weather settling in for a couple days we were off in the NICFC minibus for some shoreside adventuring.
After eventually creeping out of their bunks and a bit of brunch (well, more like lunch by the time we actually ate) we went off for a nice walk along to Black Head light house, which was the light that had guided us into the Lough the night before.
The evening was beautiful so we had to take advantage of the good weather while we could and went for a little cruise across the lough to Bangor – homecoming for Karen.
She has been so excitable about sailing home, I can’t imagine how chuffed she must be right now. Hillary and Bob (her parents) were down to welcome us in, and of course a long overdue hug with their daughter. It has been really good to meet them, and Hillary has also been spoiling us each day with treats and apple crumble (YUM!!).
We spent yesterday exploring the North Coast by minibus, but even then it was difficult to appreciate the beauty as the rain and wind were just pelting down. Today was off to a waterpark to have some fun on slides, then off to the NICFC log cabin for a rather late lunch and relaxation time. When we got back to the boat it was down to work, and Aiden, Aimee and Clodagh got down to giving Scarlet a good scrub while Molly and Rob prepared a yummy dinner. We’re all set for our arrival in Belfast tomorrow, and I think we might even get a break in the weather to have at least a final good morning of sailing for the leg. It’s been great fun having all the Irish chit chat going on, not that I can understand all the time, but my ‘Irish’ is getting a wee bit better..