Ballycastle to Glenarm

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Day 28
16th July 2011
Ballycastle to Glenarm
Departed 0645 and arrived 0915
We did this 22 mile hop in 2.5 hours!!!!
We planned our passage to use the flood SE going tide. This was to start soon after 0700. As we approached Fair Head in a calm sea we were doing 4.5 on the log. I asked Sally to check our speed over the ground (S.O.G.). We were doing 10.8 knots. Six knots of tide…. We rounded Fair Head and for the next hour we had a very rough ride. There was a F4 against us and a mad tide with us. The sea was piling up in to a short 4 metre swell which was breaking in places. At times our log was showing 1.5 knots while our SOG was 8.8 knots. It got particularly bad passing Tor Head and I was concerned that we might fail to maintain our heading and be turned. That would have been bad news because the sea was too big to run with it at our back and we would not have made any headway against the tide. So we ploughed on through the waves. There was no plan B. We had to keep going. It was not pretty to look into the distance and see breaking waves up ahead. The main consolation was the fact that we were making over 8 knots and we had only 12 miles to go. With about seven miles to go the sea state calmed almost completely and we had a relaxing though rapid sail into Glenarm marina. Sally took the boat up to the pontoon and once we tied up we were greeted by the harbour master Billy who made us very welcome and suggested a better berth to us.

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Photos

Fair Head
My eye.

Glenarms
Black guillimots