We left Bangor on Sunday mid day to get down to Dublin before the forecast low pressure hit and would have given us a force 5 on the nose. The 30 mile trip to Ardglass was again a run with nice blue sky. We even got the spinnaker up for a few hours in winds of 15-20knts. Timing the tides here is important and again we were lucky to have them coincide with when we wanted to go down.
Ardglass is a quaint little marina. No room to manouver so it was lucky there were some easy berths to get into. The marina "person" wasn't much help in telling us where to go and it was difficult to judge how deep some of the berths would be. The entry channel is very narrow and not one I would like to do in the dark for the first time.
Not many places to eat ashore so we ate on the boat and then went for a beer or three in Mannies (down to Spar and turn right up the hill before you get there - near the golf club). Typical local pub - at 10pm the doors were locked and curtains drawn - "a lock in". Here's Alan and Murry enjoying the drink.
Ardglass seemed a nice place and one I would probably go back to unlike many of the stops we have made (Rathlin excluded).
The next day was a 60 mile run down to Dublin. It started great with 15-20 knts on the beam and we were doing high 7's with the assymetric up. Shame it died after a few hours and with less than 5knts wind we had to motor the rest of the day. Moored up at the extremity of the marina which proved very bouncey with the wash from all the passing boats. We stayed here for a couple of days to sit out the bad weather and to have a look at Dublin.
Mandatory visit was the tour round the Guinness brewery and sample the beer. Quite a good trip round with a skytop view of the city of Dublin from the top. Here's Murray enjoying a pint there.
Murray and Alan left today to fly back to Edinburgh and Pam and I will leave tomorrow to head south for Arklow.
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