Day sail on Strangford Lough

It was sunny but without much wind at around 10am as we let go the lines and backed out of the pontoon.

The tide took us through the inner narrows into the Lough and we got the main up but there was still hardly any wind and we motored for Ringhaddy Sound. The sound is a winding passage along the western shore and mostly runs through yacht moorings of the cruising club. At its northern end there is a choice of routes around the many small islands and we picked one and made our way through towards Sketrick Island.

Ringhaddy Sound

Alison had got out our tourist guides of the Lough and she went below to read them. A breath of wind kicked in and grew and we were broad reaching. I set the jib and turned the engine off and we sailed gently north around the islands in the warm sunshine. It was really beautiful and with no deadlines to meet I could just enjoy it. We still had tide with us and with the gentle winds we were doing about three knots.

As I rounded Trasnagh Island I needed to gybe to head towards Skerrick. I just let the jib go, put the helm over, grabbed a handful of main sheet, pulled the boom over and reset the jib.

I wish all gybes were like that.

Alison came back up to the cockpit and all too soon we got near enough to Skerrick that if we wanted lunch at Daft Eddies we would need to drop the sails. We thought about going on but it was August Bank Holiday Monday and we thought it might get crowded later.

So we went head to wind and put the sails away. The passage into the Downs Sailing Club at Balydorn has narrows and needs to be taken carefully but we negotiated it okay and went onto the pontoon by the lightship.

Downs Sailing Club pontoon

The club berthing officer help us moor and asked if we were staying the night. We said it was just a lunch stop and he frowned and said he would have to charge us. I said "that's fine" and he relaxed.

We wandered along to the causeway and onto the island. There is a ruined tower house and then Daft Eddies is up on a hill to the right.

We didn't spot until it was too late that there are two food outlets. Maud's Café is separate from the pub but shares the garden. So we had ordered lunch without seeing Daft Eddies menu! What we had was nice and just what we wanted so it didn't matter. I went into the pub anyway and bought a pint to bring out to the garden to have with my ciabatta/pizza.

There were seven or eight children, boys and girls playing ball in the garden, aged from about four to twelve. They were all playing wonderfully together.

We walked back to Robinetta and paid a lunch stop fee. A local sailor gave us a mackerel he had caught and filleted but didn't want and we let loose the lines and allowed the tide to take us away from the pontoon. It is possible to get out of the north side of Ballydorn between Rainey and Mahee island but we were not confidant there was enough water for us so we retraced our steps. Mahee Island is joined to the mainland by a series of causeways so heading north means going outside it. It has medieval monastery ruins on it but we couldn't see a way of landing to look.

I wanted to get far enough up the Lough to see the end and we managed that with a couple of broad reaches while Alison thought about where she wanted to spend the evening. I had assumed we would moor or anchor near Killyleagh but she decided she wanted to try to get through the narrows to Portaferry before the tide turned and wait there for the midnight ebb. That meant we needed to rush south.

It was getting cloudier and windier which made the decision to turn back easier. It was, of course, a beat back. The water got rougher too.

Rather than heading down the exposed east side we decided to seek calmer water and threaded our way back to the entrance to Ringhaddy sound

There were two or three traditional dinghies sailing in the sound.

When we got near the narrows we could see boats already coming through so we thought we might be too late. But it did no harm to try. If we got washed back into the Lough we could pop round the corner to Killyleagh.

In the event we got through with very little trouble. One of the staff at the marina helped us moor and when we said we were off at midnight he said there was no charge for that.

We wandered into town and brought fish and chips back to the boat, ate them, set the alarm and put our heads down.