Malin Hd, Dolphins & Children' delight.

Today began with a shower ashore to help wake me up while everyone else on the marina were still asleep. It turned out that Jim had the same idea.
We quietly left the marina at 08.28 on a rising tide and plenty of water under our keels.
I hoisted the main while sailing down the lough but it was flat calm and even when we got out into the open sea it didn’t change.

I rounded Malin Head at 12.55 on Tuesday the 13th of July, 50 days and 689 miles after leaving East Ferry. Despite the early hour I opened a bottle of Carlsberg to celebrate.
I had been sailing for 29 of those 50 days and from now on we’d be heading in a southerly direction and getting closer to home instead of sailing away for it.

We continues ESE towards Culdaff Bay, about halfway between Malin and the entrance to Lough Foyle where we anchored off the beach at 15.45.

There is a small pier and pontoon there but I was reading a book lent to me by Jim and having read that skipper’s experience of spending a night tied up there and nearly getting wrecked, both Jim and I were more than happy to lie to our own anchors.

On our way in we were surrounded by a pod of large bottlenose dolphins.
I think up till now we had only come across the smaller common dolphin and these bottlenose behave differently.
The common ones dart about and cross under the bow whereas the bottlenose stay sitting in front of the bow and are easier to photograph.
I took great enjoyment from the shouts and excitement of children on a whale watching boat near our anchorage as the dolphins swam and jumped around their boat.
Sometimes we can get blasé about the wonders of the ocean, we should never, never, never.Lue lisää