I set off from Ardglass in yet more very dreich weather - and very little wind. I got a couple of spells of about half an hour under sail, but mostly motored the whole way down the coast. A great shame, as the coast here is adorned with the Mourne Mountains and is an area of outstanding natural beauty, which I saw little of.

As I turned into the narrow entrance of Carlingford Lough the wind began to get up - on the nose of course - funnelled by the hills on either side no doubt.

At this point in the Irish Sea, there's little tide off shore - it's where the tide from the north and south meet - but there's a fierce tide into the lough. At the narrowest point I saw 4 kts, and there was a strong "bow" wave around the channel buoys. The channel is quite narrow for a long way in, and the lough is fairly shallow to either side.

Eventually I came to the marina. By now there was quite a strong wind blowing from the NW down the lough. The marina entrance is a narrow gap between the crude concrete caisons that form its breakwater: I would not want to have entered in any stronger wind than I had.

Mooring was tricky, and sadly no locals came to my aid. I gave up the first attempt, and had to go well past the visitor berths to get enough room to turn around and line up for a second attempt. Second time lucky! My bridle - a loop of rope which I throw to moor temporarily - caught the end of the pontoon rather than the cleat I was aiming at, but that served my purpose just as well. It's not a very comfortable berth - as the wind increases, there's a fair swell building in the lough and it comes straight through the entrance to the visitor berths immediately inside. But it's safe enough for one night.

Log of this passage