Largs to Glenarm.
It has become a tradition to start the season with a trip across the North Channel to the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland. The routine usually involves setting off from Largs, spending a night on a mooring in Lamlash Bay, then heading to Glenarm and on to either Ballycastle or Bangor, with a day trip to Belfast. I travelled to Largs for a couple of days before we were to depart preparing the boat, with Alan and Hamish joining me at the weekend. Hamish was travelling from Stornoway on Lewis to join us and arrived on Saturday afternoon bearing gifts of whisky and a massive Stornoway Black Pudding!
We departed on Sunday afternoon for the short trip to Lamlash Bay to spend the night on a mooring there. It was a bit wet and dull when we left, but dry when we were approaching Holy Isle.
It was an early start from Lamlash to make the most of the tidal stream to cover the 40NM to Glenarm, and we left Lamlash Bay in dull, miserable grey weather which persisted almost the entire day. However, we did manage a great sail from just south of which lasted for around five hours until we were just a few miles from Glenarm Marina where the wind dropped and changed direction. We had an issue with the power to the control panel just as we entered the marina, which caused the panel instruments to stop working. Fortunately, the great thing about a boat diesel engine is that, unlike a car engine, it will almost always keep going until it runs out of fuel. When we had moored up, Hamish removed the panel and found a loose connection – an easy fix.
There’s not a great deal in Glenarm village, the marina, a couple of pubs and a shop. Glenarm Castle and Grounds is a short walk from the village, and it has a café and a gift shop.
Of the two bars, which are next door to each other, we prefer “The Coast Road Inn” or just “Stevey’s”. Stevey is a bit of a character, an ex-boxer whose humour is not to everyone’s taste, but you can have great banter with him and the locals. His card machine was broken, and it was cash only, which we had very little of. We told him we would be back later in the week, and so we drank for free that night. We had a great evening there.