Ballycastle
While sitting out the bad weather in Port Ellen, Islay, we realized how very close we were to Northern Ireland – just 25 miles! So we thought: Why not? So after three days in Port Ellen (with two days of winds gusting over 45 mph), we set off for Ballycastle, Ireland in lighter winds 🙂
Ballycastle is on a course that’s due south from Port Ellen and it’s near the NE corner of Northern Ireland. We had plenty of time to prepare for this short passage, and we learned that there could be some treacherous currents between Rathlin Island, a tourist island just north of Ballycastle, and the Ballycastle Marina entrance. This information meant that we should arrive at this area at slack water when the current is absent or very weak. Adam did most of this passage planning. Adam used our navigational resources (Almanac, Tide Table, and Tidal Stream Atlas) to time our passage so that we would ride favorable currents for most of the passage and arrive at/near slack water Ballycastle. We had to go through the area between Rue Point and Fair or Benmore Head in the photo below from a Tidal Stream Atlas. The passage planning was on the mark and we arrived at Ballycastle in calm sea conditions.
This is a clip from a Tidal Stream Atlas. The Atlas is referenced against High Tide at Dover, and includes a page for each of the 6 hours before High Tide, and each of the 6 hours after High Tide. The thicker the line of the arrow, the stronger the current. The little spirals indicate whirlpools. This is obviously an hour when it would not be safe to sail through this area.
We had never heard of Ballycastle before, and we found it to be a picturesque little town with lovely people.
The colorful main street of Ballycastle!
The harbors and marinas can be pretty colorful places, too. The photo on the left shows swallow-like birds congregating on the rigging of two boats. They only stayed there for about an hour, but they left a horrible mess below.
Besides enjoying the town (amazing bakery! Fantastic butcher shop!), we did a wee coastal hike from Dunseverick to Giant’s Causeway (4.8 miles). The hike provided spectacular views of the north shore of Northern Island, the Isle of Islay, and Kintyre peninsula in Scotland. We celebrated our great day with a nice seafood dinner at O’Connor’s Pub in Ballycastle town.
Carrickfergus and Belfast
Neither Adam nor I had ever visited Belfast, so that’s another city that we really wanted to see. Belfast’s guest marina is currently closed for repairs/upgrades. We chose to stay at Carrickfergus marina about 8 miles from Belfast city center. We called a few days ahead and reserved a slip.Â
In reviewing the tides and currents, we found that we were at a spring tide, a time when the tides are most extreme (at their highs and lows) and the currents are the strongest. There are strong currents along the route from Ballycastle to Carrickfergus, so we had to be mindful of these data. After four delightful days in Ballycastle, we departed at 5:45 a.m. in a slack water. Shortly after we exited the marina, we had a 1 knot current in our favor; within an hour, we had 4-5 knots of current carrying us along to Carrickfergus! Our top speed in the current was just over 12 knots—pretty significant given that our typical boat speed is about 6.5 knots (1 knot is a little faster than 1 mph).
The current slowed and then reversed about 90 minutes before we got to Carrickfergus, but we never had more than 1 knot of current against us. Again, Adam planned this really well!!!
Arriving Carrickfergus, just outside of Belfast
We enjoyed staying in Carrickfergus and appreciated its easy access to Belfast by a 20-minute train. We had to stay a wee while due to blustery weather.
Our shore-power system began giving us trouble while we were in Port Ellen, Islay. Adam did some troubleshooting and diagnosed that power was coming into the boat, but wasn’t making it through our Mastervolt electrical system. We were lucky to find two marine electricians at a shop right in Carrickfergus Marina. They were fantastic to work with and worked closely with Adam in conducting further diagnostics. We also talked by phone with a Mastervolt engineer during the diagnostics because the system is under warranty. By the end of the day, the electricians installed a by-pass around the Mastervolt components that weren’t working so that we could use shore-power to charge our batteries. Mastervolt will work with us to find a time and place to replace the broken components (probably within the next two weeks or so) with new ones.
We spent more than an hour checking out the outside and inside of Carrickfergus Castle.
Belfast was a delight: It was a very international and bustling city with pubs (old and new) on every corner. Many of the pubs showcased Victorian architecture.
St. Malachy’s Church, Belfast.
Finally got another 1-day weather window, so we bid farewell to Northern Ireland. We are very glad we decided to visit Northern Ireland– if only for a short while: It was beautiful, historic, and welcoming.
