We departed from Glenarm at 11:50 to catch the north-going tide, now with 4 on-board. There was a blustery forecast and the Eclectic crew decided to delay their departure to the Mull of Kintyre.
By 12:50 we had to reduce sail to main only, in order to slowdown to ensure we didn’t get to Rathlin Sound too early for the tidal gate. Past Garron Pt doing 11.5kn over ground - pity the boat can’t manage that speed when racing.
The wind started to increase and by Torr Head we had taken a precautionary reef in the main ….. and wasn’t that a good idea!!
When we got up to Fair Head we hit a rainsquall, with a
30kn headwind & lashing rain. We lost sight of land at that critical point,
even though we were very close in to Fair Head and Rob had to relay our progress
from the GPS down below. However the squall passed as we crossed the Rathlin
Sound and we managed to steer clear of some very visible large rollers in the
Sound.
At 15:00 we nosed into Rathlin Harbour in sunshine & moderate winds, the end of an exciting 17nm trip. We moored alongside an old trawler, with the echo sounder beeping excitedly, telling us we didn’t have much water under the keel.
In the afternoon we had a good walk out to the East Rathlin Lighthouse before dinner. We were accompanied by a local dog which put up a hare – skipper’s first sighting of a hare since his return to NI.
Note: A degree of prior planning needed in relation to the use of public facilities on Rathlin, as they are a good 10-minutes walk from the harbour.