A wonderful send off from Sheephaven Bay from a large pod of dolphins playing around Little Scarlet for at least five minutes.
Heading around Malin Head we ‘struck’ the Irish tricolour and headed towards Portrush. We found a good berth in Portrush harbour, in the heart of a pleasant seaside town with a couple of beautiful sandy beaches, some lovely pubs and lots of golfers!
Fuel was an issue – we were unable to buy red diesel at the marina as it’s sale has been prohibited by the Northern Ireland Protocol (!) so we had to head off to the nearest petrol station with our cans again!
After a night alongside in Portrush we planned to sail to Rathlin Island but first fitted in a quick visit to the Giant’s Causeway.. I think I was slightly underwhelmed – it is very impressive, but it was covered in people!
After our tourism we had a relatively quick passage across to Rathlin Island – we liked it very much. To be fair it was a beautiful evening but it’s hard to beat a friendly little marina, a bar with a good view across the harbour and another Sadler 32 to admire!
Rathlin Island is home to an upside-down lighthouse, designed to keep the light below the prevalent fog.
From Rathlin a rainy but calm transit of the North Channel, around the Mull of Kintyre and into Campbeltown – back on the mainland!
A pleasant evening in Campbeltown (ate ‘Chicken Balmoral’ – chicken stuffed with haggis – surprisingly good!) and the following morning off around Arran and across to Ardrossan Marina.
We chose Ardrossan as it has excellent railway links (three stations!) and it appeared to be a well equipped marina where we could safely leave Little Scarlet for a week or two while we head off home.
