Bangor to Glenarm to Ballycastle.

We were keen to visit Ballycastle which is just over 40 NM and easily reachable from Bangor in a day, but once again the tides weren’t in our favour and even covering the twenty-odd miles to Glenarm meant us leaving quite early.

Leaving Bangor Marina we crossed Belfast Lough and passed Blackhead Lighthouse. Just beyond the lighthouse is The Gobbins Cliff Path, much of which can be seen from the sea.

We left in misty, foggy conditions but arrived at Glenarm Marina in glorious sunshine. The trip was uneventful with the strong tidal stream pushing us north and covering the 23 NM in under four hours. miles. I stayed on board enjoying a delicious Deanston whilst Hamish and Alan went to Stevey’s bar to pay the debt we had run up when his card machine stopped working. 

The Larne Lifeboat was out on training and turned up at Glenarm for some close manoeuvring around the marina and docking practice. The “Trent Class” isn’t the largest in the RNLI fleet but most definitely a welcome sight if you are in trouble out at sea. If you are a sailor or regularly use the sea for pleasure activities you should be supporting the RNLI. If not, you should be ashamed of yourself.

With the tide times continuing to do us no favours, it was another early start. The wind was coming from the Northwest and as such was directly on the nose for most of the way but the tidal stream helped us up and around Fairhead to Ballycastle.

We were planning to stay a couple of nights to allow us a day up in the main part of the town for lunch and visits to two wonderful pubs – The House of McDonnell and The Boyd Arms. Both pubs claim to be the oldest in Ballycastle.