We were in Larne Lough and we had a choice, either motor up to Glenarm or get the dinghy out to motor around Larne Lough. So seeing as motoring in Salty Sausage sounded more fun that is exactly what we did.
Larne Lough is a lough of contrasts with one side being very industrial with the ferry terminal and the power station, while the other side is very rural. For us it was the rural side of the lough that was calling us so it was time to get Salty Sausage out and explore the lough. While we were exploring we saw a ruined building and inside the building was a caravan. If somebody is taking on the ruined building then we take our hats off to them as that will be one big project, too big for us at any rate. We also found a small bay where we could come ashore and fly the drone. I love drone footage which is why I bought one at the beginning of the year. We also went for a little walk and we saw some fuchsias, which is a common hedge row plant in Northern Ireland. Beverley then showed me how you can get the nectar out of the fuchsia. We also saw a white fuchsia which Beverley had not seen before. Along the walk we saw loads of blackberries and we ate quite a few, we just wished that we had bought a bowl or something so that we could collect some for tea. On the way back from our walk we went over to an abandoned cement works where quite a few other boats were anchored, but they were slightly smaller boats than Salty Lass and you need to go down an undredged channel to get to that anchorage.
On our way back we also took some footage in and around the anchorage because we wanted to explain a few things, because finding the anchorage is not that easy, because of the words used and what we thought they meant.
- So the pilotage says moor up by the yellow stone. So we were thinking a cliff made up of yellow stone while in actual fact it was a singular stone that was yellow because of lichen, what we didn't appreciate was the dot by the word stone which indicated that it was singular and the (2) number 2 in brackets that meant that it was 2m in height.
- The line for the gas pipe was much easier to find as it has some yellow buoys marking the pipe along with a yellow diamond where the boat comes ashore. The issue with the pipe is that it is 2-3m off the sea bed. This information is only found out when you are really zoomed in on your electronic chart, so when you are looking at anchorages, really zoom in just in case there is information like that available.
The next day there was a fair bit of wind, so we decided to carry on our journey to Glenarm.
On our journey to Glenarm, we had a cracking sail and we were having to adjust the main sheet traveller all the time because the wind was very gusty, so that when the wind was light we would adjust the main sheet so that we were sailing closer to the wind, while when we were in a gust we would ease the the main sheet out so that we would travel slower. Beverley and I joked about her being Moana but neither of us could remember any of the songs. I took us into the marina and we settled into the marina for some bad weather that was coming the next day.
