Friday 12 June Carlingford to Ardglass

We had decided perhaps to run straight up to Strangford Lough which, we were advised, is beautiful. We were also advised that a visit to Ardglass was important too, and it was a shorter distance, so that became our next target.
Arrived at low water and the harbour looked incredibly tiny. The wind was 25knots, blowing us off the pontoon; fortunately there were a bunch of like-minded souls on the pontoon ready to take our lines and make the whole manoeuvre easy.

Met up with Keith and Cindy on their boat ‘Rita Mae’ a modern sloop. They are heading in the same sort of direction as us, so we expect we will meet up. Sadly they had a line on their mainsail stackpack part, so they were heading up to Bangor, where there is a good rigger who can help.

Another 2 night stay over.

Saturday 13 June.

There was a gig-racing regatta, followed by a charity fish cookout at the marina. A gentleman of Ardglass, who was a very charitable businessman and good soul, had been afflicted with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) so the whole village regularly gets together and does events to raise money for the MND charity. This was one such event. The fishermen donated all the food from their catches, we all stumped up ££ in donations, to be rewarded with a mahoosive plate of freshly caught n cooked Dublin Bay prawns,kippers and a delicious white fish (hake, pollock, something like that) and home made fish cake.

Add to that the pop bar and it made for a lovely afternoon. We retired onboard fairly early and fairly (?) upright and sober.Read more