Ardglass

Suzy the Sailor Cat.

Day 21- We arrived in Ardglass yesterday (21 June mid-summer day) after a short one and a half hour's pleasant sail from Portaferry. We were sad to leave as it is a lovely little town with lots going on and always the option to jump on the ferry for the short crossing to Strangford. We said goodbye in style by visiting the sailing club on Friday night, where there was an Irish band playing. It started with four players and by the time we left there were nine, with a variety of instruments from guitars to banjos, several fiddles, a flute, a recorder and a strange looking bagpipe!

Ferry Street, Portaferry, with the "smallest pub" and Lunar Sea in background (with the dark blue hull).

We went whooshing (correct spelling Ali!) out on the tide once again and later were told that there is only about half an hour of slack, 15 minutes either side of high or low water (or flood and ebb as they confusingly call it here.) As the sailors we have met in Ardglass say "So you had the Strangford Experience". Apparently a lot of sailors miss it out because of the fierce tide so we are pleased with ourselves to have done it.

Ardglass is a very small village, with a new marina and good facilities. We could clearly see the mountains on the Isle of Man on the horizon as we entered, it looked very close. Ardglass was a thriving fishing port, mainly based on Herring (silver darlings) and there still is a major fish marketing and processing centre in the separate fishing dock. Four or five hundred sail-powered fishing vessels were based here 150 years ago. In summer herring was the main catch and in winter, cod and whiting.


We moored on a finger pontoon next to a Scot who had just arrived. We chatted, as you do and it transpired that he had sailed last year from his home town in Irvine, Scotland (see my previous blog on Irvine) to Portugal. He had spent the Winter there and was now sailing home to Scotland. "I can't wait" he said "had a terrible storm in the Bay of Biscay lasted three days." Then he said he had a cat on board with him, she was below in the cabin as she was not in his good books. "At the last marina I had been ready to go to catch the tide and didn't have much time, but Suzy the cat was nowhere to be seen. She had wandered off along the pontoon and wasn't to be found. She finally casually showed up just when time was running out to catch the tide!" "Can I see her" I asked and here she is....

Suzy the seasoned sailor, with two Bay of Biscay trips under her collar!

In the evening we did our usual trip to the local pub for a Guinness. We walked into town to Mannie's, a bar that had been recommended to Josh by the locals. It was a "James Joyce " approved pub "for being an authentic Irish pub". Although it was very cosy and nice it wasn't as friendly as the pubs in Portaferry.

Sorry Ardglass but we are kind of wishing we had stayed in Portaferry! The trouble here in Ardglass is there is a very poor mobile phone signal and internet signal, hence no blog got done yesterday. I will probably not blog again until we get to Carlingford, hopefully on Monday.

Ardglass is our last port of call in Northern Ireland, so next time I blog we will be in Ireland.

P.S. We spent a pleasant afternoon in Downpatrick, a short bus ride away and the burial place of St. Patrick. It was a small market town with an interesting cathedral and museum. A rest day tomorrow and getting ready for an early start on Monday to catch the tide to Carlingford.