Little Hops

Reluctantly heading back out into the Irish Sea in small hops, first one to Strangford, the small village opposite Portaferry in the " narrows"

Woke up in the morning to a flat calm sea, which perfectly agreed with the Beaufort scale definition for force 0 , sea like a mirror.

A short trip of about an hour or so saw Dark Tarn creeping against the last of the flood tide, past Audley roads, which we noted for a peaceful anchorage, and into Strangford. It is important to avoid the ferry which whizzes in and out on a very regular basis. We looked for the visitors mooring and were slightly shocked to see how close the ferry got to them.

The visitors mooring bouy is the little orange one to the left of the south Cardinal mark.

A decision was made to moor at the pontoon which as well as being slightly hampered by the other ferry moored alongside also had a fair bit of tide flowing against it. However a quick practise run and we docked successfully. It always takes a bit of "thinking time" before we come alongside as Dark Tarn weighs nearly ten tons, and as Lynne is usually the only shore person it can sometimes become quite hectic quite quickly! However we are getting very good at short handed stuff now.

The small bay at Strangford is quite congested with moorings and rocks around the small island in the middle. Add to that the tide running at over 6 knots in the narrows and it can be quite uncomfortable. The ferry coming and going also produces a fair bit of wash. Strangely the tide in the bay apart from an hour or so around high water runs constantly North.

The village is quite pretty but Lynne was not impressed with paying £20 for a pontoon with no facilities, the Cuan Inn who collects the fees also charge £3 for a shower, so the decision to move on was made there and then!

Had a pleasant evening in the local pub, engaged in conversation by a couple of locals and helped out with bus timetables etc. by the landlord, again we finished up being the only two people in the place as we discussed options for the winter.

In the morning I was pleased to discover the turbine generator in the narrows had been raised. It is normally submerged into the fast tidal stream. We had first come across this monster late at night and in the pitch dark so it was nice to see it in the daylight.

This is a very impressive structure and as well as being very large it also has the "Dennis the menace" colours and lights of an isolated danger. Nonetheless at least one boat has managed to run into it!

I have also been told, but as this is Ireland, I cannot swear to the truth of it, that the turbine blades are seal friendly and stop rotating when a seal swims close.

We took the ferry across to Portaferry, the wind was on the increase so I wasn't happy to go out of Strangford entrance on the ebb as it would be a wind over tide situation that causes very large over falls in winds of force 5 and over.

We had a chat with the harbourmaster at Portaferry but decided to simply move around the corner to audley roads, the rather charming anchorage we had passed yesterday. It took all of thirty minutes to move around picking up a vacant mooring opposite Audley Castle. Shortest hop yet!