Castle Ward

The alarm went off at 07.30 and I was leaving the harbour an hour later.
It was flat calm and I didn't hang around waiting for a breeze as I needed to get to the mouth of Carlingford Lough before the flood started.

Shortly after leaving a 'Seatruck' ship left the docks behind me and slowly caught up as we travelled down the lough. I kept a close eye on him and I increased my speed thinking I might get out into the open sea before him but shortly before the 'narrows' at the exit of the lough it caught up, so I moved future out of the channel to give it plenty of room to pass.

It got very hot during the morning and I was nearly at Newcastle 4 hours later before I got enough wind to sail. From there I had enough wind for a close reach doing about 4.5 knts. for the remainder of the day. It was a pleasant but not fast sail and I ended up deciding to pull into the small harbour of Ardglass rather than continue onto Bangor which had been my original intention.

I called up the marina and was told to tie up wherever there was room.
Having examined the photo of the marina in the sailing directions, I decided to tie up to a long pontoon on the outside if there was space.
There was, it was empty!

I was tied up by 15.30 and went ashore to the office where I was giving warm welcome by the elderly gentleman on duty. The marina seems to be a community run enterprise and it proved to be a nice spot to break the voyage.

I wandered up to the village and got an ice cream at a shop.
The gentleman behind the counter informed me that he had been an extra in the 'Game of Thrones' as were two of his sons.
I've never watched it... yet.... but looking at his beard and hair I had no reason not to believe him. He would have fitted into the cast of the 'Vikings' no problem.
(a few years later I saw him being interviewed on TV about it, he was telling the truth)

There is a castle in the middle of the village and a golf course overlooking the sea with an impressive castle-like clubhouse just south of the harbour.

I wandered up to the supermarket and got some provisions and on the way back to the harbour, spied a Chinese restaurant and decided why not?
I dropped the provisions to the boat and headed back for a takeaway and sat eating it in the cockpit with a glass of wine as the sun slowly went down.

I tried to read for a while but by 23.00 I headed to bed suffering from more fresh air sickness.Read more