Saturday
Alarm went off at 0500hrs for our departure of Bangor NI. Quick cuppa and away by half 5 to catch the tide out of Bangor and down towards Holyhead our planned stop over tonight. Wind in the south all day so motor sailing to maintain speed. Looks like a late arrival and Doug checking tides to see what time we would need to leave on Sunday to get a favourable trip home. Had Argyle pasties for breakfast at about half 11 cos it's a bit lumpy for cooking a full fry up. Still working our way through the never ending supply of welsh cakes on board. We have done 11 hours of motoring since Cambeltown so refuelled after breakfast and settled down for our trip. By settled down I mean me and Chris went to our bunks and Doug and Ben stayed up. Got woken by Ben at quarter to 3 to say Doug and him had checked tides which meant another early start, so how did we feel about heading straight home through the night. Should get in Sunday afternoon. Chris and I agreed so a new course was plotted and what did say 45 miles to destination now says 122 and that's only to broad sound. Still it will be nice to be home and it means Doug should get some of his birthday with his family even if he smells bad and is very tired. Can't waste water washing now. Lol. A pod of about 10 dolphins popped over to see us at 1705hrs and we took some pics and a few videos. Dolphins stayed for an hour, must have been admiring Maelstroms smooth keel. Nice to have them around always puts a smile on our faces. Put a reef in main for the night passage and started our watches. Quiet night. Wind dropped off to 3 knots and sea flattened. Shook reef out of main at 0850hrs and put up number 1. Had a nice sail for 3hrs then wind came round and dropped off so we took number 1 down and motor sailed towards Ramsey sound. Had a cuppa and sang Happy Birthday to Doug. Also gave him a card and a packet of Ashers, Red Velvet Yummie cupcakes. Through Ramsey and in time to get to Jack sound with favourable tide. Wind dropped now so heading gently towards St Anne's under full sail. Ben and I tiding up a bit. Soon be home. Had to motor up river as wind had dropped and didn't want to miss last orders in club. Bit of a boat tradition having a pint to celebrate safe arrival at port. For the stats people among you our last trip from Bangor took a shade over 36hrs to cover a distance of 230.37nm at an average speed of 6.3 knots. Had a couple of pints before saying goodbye to Doug, Chris and Ben.
I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Doug and Maelstrom for once again giving me a cracking holiday and seeing many places I have never been. Also thanks to Chris, Rob and Ben for being great company and fun reliable sailors. I had a great time. Another thank you goers to all our wives for being understanding about what us boys do for fun. I can imagine it is not easy sometimes when you can't communicate due to no phone signal etc. I hope anyone who has read this has enjoyed our journey with us and it just remains for me to say goodbye.
Maybe I will right again maybe I won't. Been fun tho.
Paul