Memories of Casement in Bangor.

We departed Belfast at 09.30 on a lovely sunny morning.
We had decided to only go downriver as far as Bangor as it was too far to reach Ardglass in the one day.
As we travelled down the Victoria Channel, I imagined the Titanic sailing down the same channel, leaving Belfast for the last time.

Once we had left the channel there was enough wind to sail under genoa for the last hour and a half to the marina.
We booked in, filled our fuel tanks and then went exploring the town.
We discovered a lovely park that had the deck gun of a WW1 German submarine mounted on a pedestal. On reading the plaque attached to it, we discovered that it was from the U19 which landed Rodger Casement on Banna Strand in 1916.

That evening we had a conference about when to leave given that the tide wasn’t going to be in our favour until 14.00.
Tides can be strong in this area but if we delayed leaving until the ideal time would mean we wouldn’t be in to Ardglass until about 21.00.
Opinions differed but eventually it was decided that leaving at 10.00 would be a good compromise as the tide would be easing as we went along and we’d be still making progress and getting in at a reasonable time.

We had dinner ashore and by the time we got back to the marina I could hardly keep my eyes open and I retired to bed.Read more