July 8th : Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland

Motored the 5 miles or so up the coast to Strangford Lough, leaving Ardglass at 11-15 to catch the end of the flood tide through the narrows. On spring tides ( we were now two days before spring ) the tide races through the narrows at up to 7.8Kts so there is no option but to take a fair tide. As it was, we had about 2Kts of fair tide but even so, there were some impressive wakes from various marks, and especially the tidal stream generator which is place right in the middle of the channel. There is a lot of water moving through the narrows; the channel is 60m deep in some places ! 

Having past Portaferry on our starboard, and Strangford village to port, we pulled into Audley’s roads and anchored for a very peaceful night. 

Having had a fairly leisurely getting up in the morning, we decided to have a gentle motor up and down the Lough ( there was not a breath of wind ).

We anchored in ‘Bloody Burn’ bay for lunch, and then intended to carefully work our way through the many reefs ( known locally as ‘Pladdys’ ), It was then that we realised that the fluxgate compass on the autopilot system was giving ( very ) anomalous readings, and as most of the closest reefs were now submerged we decided to re-trace our footsteps for a while, then cross the Lough and explore the larger islands on the western side. 

What we found was a whole network of channels, and islands, with lots of boats moored – we could have spent days in the dinghy exploring this area, simply magical !

Returing to Audley’s roads we picked up a mooring in deeper water, and closer to Portaferry, ready for a quick getaway in the morning, catching the ebb tide to escape the narrows, and help us on our way to our next destination, Carlingford Lough, on the border of Northern Ireland, and the Republic.