Getting round Malin Head

Our aim for the day was rounding Malin Head, which meant an early(ish) start. There are instructions in the pilot book for when to leave Portrush to make for Malin Head relative to the tide, but they all assume a boat capable of cruising at 6 knots, while we plan on 3-4, so they are not much help to us!

We raised the main and staysail on the pontoon, and left Portrush at 08:15 in sunshine with no wind and a long low swell. The tide was against us, so we were doing just three knots under motor as we crossed the entrance to Lough Foyle. We saw saw the sail training vessel Maybe coming out from Lough Foyle. The harbour master at Portrush had told us that she was due in there, but that the entrance has silted up so much that she was restricted to entering at high tide sop had decided to go to Derry instead. Like us she was under motor with the sails up.

Sail training vessel "Maybe"

After we passed Inishowen Head to the west of Lough Foyle we closed with the coast to stay out of the tide as much as possible, but it was still slow going. Julian strayed out a little to try and keep some wind in the sails and suddenly we were in a nasty sea; overfalls where none were charted. We headed in closer to the shore and were immediately in calmer water (but there was still swell.)

Then the visibility closed down. We were hugging the coast, but could not see it, and the chartplotter was invaluable for knowing where to go. The tide turned in our favour and we were motor sailing along at over 5 knots, with our arrival time at Malin Head crashing down. Julian had put in a course to take us well out from the headland to avoid the overfalls that would develop, but suddenly that diversion looked unnecessary. I put in a new course, and we threaded through the Garvan Sound on chartplotter bearings, unable to see any of the pilot book guiding lines to check our position. I deliberately laid the course over a deep area, to use the depth gauge to check our position, and it was fine. By this time we could see Carnadreelagh Island outside us, but I never even glimpsed the one that lay between us and the coast. There was also a hidden danger called Blind Rock to avoid... 

Going inside Blind Rock would have let us avoid all the overfalls, but with no bearings to take I opted for safety, and took us between Carnadreelagh (which I could see) and Blind Rock. There was a line of overfalls here, but they were not very bad and we got through them without problems.

Once clear of Blind Rock we closed with the coast, hoping to creep inside the overfalls that could be off the invisible Malin Head. Wonderfully they were not there. We had timed the whole trip well enough, and as we came past Malin Head the sky ahead of us was blue. The wind which had been light but on the nose all the way from Portrush was suddenly on the beam, and we could see for miles. We looked back at the dirty cloud hanging low over Malin Head and points East, then turned the engine off and broad reached across the entrance to Lough Swilly and on to Fanad Head.

Low cloud on Malin Head

The wind came round and we went on to a run. Not such a good point of sail, but we set the preventor and I relaxed a little too much. I was sailing by the lee when a swell added that little extra push to the boom and it tried to gybe to the other side. Unfortunately the preventer rope snapped and it succeeded, sending the boom and sail crashing over to starboard. The boom bounced off the backstay, then I got it under control and back on the port side.

I felt overpowered, so we reefed down, and by the time we were approaching Riaboy Point we needed two. Finally we gybed round and headed in to Mulroy Bay, intending to go through the first narrows and anchor in Fanny's Bay.

The bay looks wide, but there are rocks across much of it, and a shifting sand bar coming out from the other side. There is supposed to be a beacon at the east end of the rocks, but it had gone, leaving nothing but a concrete block with the swell breaking on it to mark its position. Luckily I noticed this and turned away, slightly later than ideal! The manoeuvre brought us head to wind, so we dropped the main and headed past under stay sail and engine.

Mulroy Bay

 The tide sluiced us through the narrows at 7 knots, and we arrived in Fanny's Bay to find the disused boatyard of the pilot book obviously in use and the bay full of moorings and a wreck. We managed to find a space and dropped the anchor at eight, after a very long day on the water.

Fanny's Bay