The weather was a little changeable but later in the afternoon, the sun came out. The view was so nice I thought to take a photo with my I-Phone, as I backed up on the foredeck to frame the perfect shot I tripped over the windlass and needless to say my precious I-Phone went sailing into the drink.
I spent the next two hours on the phone to insurers, police, phone companies........it was a sad and sorry time.
After a comfortable night at anchor the world once again looked lovely, however the forcast was looking decidedly windy so a quick consult of the charts suggested that the Quoile river would be the place to spend the following night, having very good shelter from the imminent south westerly wind.
Strangford Lough is effectively a drowned glacial valley, full of drumlins, the ones above the water are islands and the ones below are known as " pladdies", most, but not all, are marked with poles or withies. Sometimes these are difficult to see, it makes pilotage interesting and it is important to be aware of your position at all times. The pilot speaking of the Quoile says this' the Quoile river is not navigable by a stranger at night', pretty succinct really. As it was afternoon Lynne and I found it fairly easy slipping past the just under the surface dangers into the very pretty river and a secure visitors mooring at the Quoile yacht club.
The rather dull weather briefly took a turn for the better in the evening.
As we settled down after a brief visit ashore we started to look up the history of where we were as there was a very prominent statue visible on a local hill, the OS map we had on board confirmed that the hill in question was known as Slieve Patrick, it turned out that the island in the above photo was the first landing place of St Patrick in Ireland, after being swept through the narrows ( we know what that feels like! ). In fact the whole area was a historical treasure chest of St Patrick history and legend, he is buried very nearby at Downpatrick in the Cathedral and his first church is at Saul about two miles away.
As darkness fell Slieve Patrick and its huge statue were brightly illuminated and stood out very clearly in the dark night.
The following morning was still a little windy but the sun was out, we had decided that a walk to Killyleagh in order to get access to a printer, the insurance company in its wisdom was quite happy to e-mail me a claim form but was adamant that I then needed to print it out, fill it in in biro and post it back. As Lynne said " one foot in the 21st century and the other in the 20th"
However it was a good excuse for a walk, but first we had to plan a route, we decided to access the main road via the Delamont country park, which was just across the river so it meant rowing to the opposite shore.
We hauled Annandale up the rocky shore and tied her to a handy tree, this was a launch point for a canoe trail so had good access to the paths of the country park.
The Park turned out to be very scenic and we could have spent a few days exploring the myriad paths and trails. Once we had found the exit to the road it took only twenty minutes or so before we found ourselves in Killyleagh.
It turned out to be very quaint and full of little shops, also postboxes, very handy if you had an insurance form to post! It also had a very impressive castle, Disneyesque maybe but rather grand non the less.
The computers in the local library despite the best efforts of the librarian refused to print the last page of a six page PDF document, this was the all important signed part. As the staff were short handed the library closed for lunch so Lynne and I adjourned to a local chippy for lunch which we eat on the seafront.
After lunch we decided to have a look at the yacht club, we were welcomed by a couple of the members and offered a free mooring or pontoon berth. We decided that it made more sense to be closer to the fleshpots of civilisation at least until the insurance was sorted out.
As it happened a return to the library after lunch solved the printing problem, the librarian allowed me to log on to her computer thus neatly circumventing the problems with the public machines.
We walked back to our dingy Allendale and rowed back out to Dark Tarn, we were followed for most of the way by a young seal. We started the engine and quickly dropped the mooring, thirty minutes later we were approaching the pontoon belonging to Killyleagh yacht club. We berthed on the quiet water on the leeward side, a bit trickier but worth it for a "quiet boat"
We walked into the boatyard where members were busy hauling boats out foe end of season storage.
There was certainly nothing end of season about the weather. We were advised to follow the tractor as one of the members would call at number 7 just down the way to collect a visitors 'fob' to allow us access to the club showers and also operate the electric gates.
We were made very welcome and popped into town to stock up on essential supplies, which seemed to consist chiefly of chocolate!
A glorious day for September, the weather warm, at least until the evening and the views across the Lough were more like the Mediterranean than Northern Ireland!
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