Tory Island

Alison always sleeps lightly when we are at anchor. Around 4am she heard Worm making a noise and went up to look. She found us inches away from a moored yacht. We tend to rely on boats swinging in a roughly compatible way. This one was now facing 180 degrees from us and we were about to touch. It was dead low water and we're seeing very different currents in different parts of the bay.

Alison pushed it away, turned the engine on and motored forwards. Then she called me and I pulled some clothes on and joined her in the cockpit.

The other yacht was now starting to swing to match us. Alison went down to put clothes on too and I put some reverse on to get us back to swirling on the anchor. We clearly hadn't dragged but we had anchored a little too close.

The incoming tide and steady wind should mean we would be ok now until it was time to get up. We went back to sleep.

Groggy from the broken night we rose too late to catch the 7am Irish Coast Guard weather forecast. I put my phone on and enabled roaming and picked up XC. No change from yesterday. Another fine day. 

We breakfasted and I took a look at the NMEA wiring. The Lat/Lng to the DSC radio has stopped working. I found the wires into the back of radio loose - I need to do a better job there. I pushed them in but it didn't seem to help. However later that morning it started working on its own.

Alison bent on the no 2 jib but couldn't get it to set right. I took a look and found the Wickham-Martin furler wrongly shackled to the traveller. It must have been wrong since Ardglass. How on earth it worked on Monday and Tuesday is a mystery. I fixed it and we got the anchor up. Black mud. It took me a while to clean up the foredeck and stow the anchor. In the mean time Alison motored through the narrows. We got the main up and sailed out of the bay. 

Our destination was Tory Island, 19 nm from Fanny's Bay. A quick journey might mean a short stop and then on towards Gweedore; a slower trip might mean staying the night.

Tory island is Ireland's most remote inhabited island but it has a new harbour and a regular foot ferry.

The trip was fine sailing.  The wind was dead behind so we sailed long broad reach boards to be more comfortable. The wind was quite weak so we shook out most of the reefs and changed up to the no 1 jib.

Tory Island East End

Tory Island in the distance

As we got near the harbour the wind freshened. If we had been going further we would have reefed but instead Alison trimmed the main to dump some power but it kept building. We put the helm around and dropped the main and motored in.

The late-ish start and jagged course got us to Tory at 16:00 just as the last ferry to the mainland was leaving.

We moored up against the wall as we had learned to in Frazerburgh and I went to check on the fishing boats - they were tied up just the same. 

First stop was the shop for milk and apples and then we went for a walk to the east. The view across to Donegal is wonderful.

Then Alison spotted the ferry coming back and we turned back to the harbour in case we needed to move. We were too late. The Sailing Directions are out of date - the ferry now stays in Tory overnight. It had managed anyway but we won't be very popular. 

We ate in the Hotel and has a nice chat with Sean, the owner. He was a lighthouse keeper for 50 years and took over the hotel when it was about to close. Business is OK at the moment. After that is was another walk, along to the lighthouse before heading back to Robinetta.