Bangor to Dun Laoghaire

Although we were very settled in Bangor, the reality of Autumn was kicking in. As usual, the weather forecast showed one very windy day, then a calmer one, Naturally, the following week showed calmish winds until it became the current week when things reverted to the two day cycle. Jam tomorrow and all that. This shows the  nice peaky nature of the weather - the top is wave height off Norn Iron and the lower bit wind strength and gusts. an autumnal pattern of low pressure systems was firmly established:

There wasn't a weather window long enough to do the 32 hour trip to South Wales (Milford Haven area), However, there was a bit of a break that would let us get to Dublin without having some nasty head seas. What was the downside - well, a very early start that would be a bit bumpy until things calmed down. The tides and winds did not want to play nicely together,  Ideally, we would leave Bangor at 3am. Only then it would be much rougher out to sea. So, we opted for 4am to let things calm down a bit.

Leaving well before daylight meant replying on the FLIR to spot pot markers so we fired it up to check all was well:

You get to see the temperature differences between the boat structures and guard rails very clearly (black-cold).The image was a bit blurry as you can see so the lens had a good clean ready for silly o'clock the next morning. A 3:30 am alarm was not ideal. Things were still a bit windy as we crept out at low water with not much depth under the keel. Here is how the "office" looked underway:

Heading between Donaghadee and the Copeland Islands you get some serious tidal streams that try hard to push the boat off course which is tricky as the channel isn't that wide or straight anyway. This shows the level of tidal help and it hadn't reached peak flow yet either:

10 knots over the ground, 6.5 though the water. Pretty good really, although the captain didn't spend too long enjoying it. He was busier making sure we stayed in the wet bit as the stream grabbed our keel and wanted us to go in directions that were not too safe. Once we passed the rather worryingly named Skullmartin and turned more to the SW, things started to calm down, with some messy wave patterns on the beam. The further we got from the land, the less shelter we had and the messier they got. The stabilisers won the battle though.

There were several clusters of fishing boats, some well clear of us:

Being a fish anywhere near that swarm of fishing boats was probably a guaranteed early demise. There was one particularly annoying inshore fishing boat that was dropping pots into the sea. He seemed to delight in changing course right in front of us to stress the crew who was at the helm. They probably enjoyed doing things that were basically unsafe and against all the collision regulations. We kind of hope that their pots were pretty empty.

The tides work in a collaborative way from Bangor down to Dublin. As you take the flood tide southwards, you meet a tide that has been running in the other direction pretty much as it changes. So, lots of tidal help which then drops off and picks up again in your favour. Up to 12 hours of help if timed nicely. It makes the trip way quicker - door to door our run took 14 hours after leaving at a less than optimal time. If we tried to do it against the tides, the Time Zero software calculated a 19 hour run and we think that is optimistic.

Here is the route for the 98 Nautical Mile trip:

As the wind dropped so did the sea state and the sun came out to join us too. It was a rather nice run down towards Dublin Bay until the wind shifted again to the SW (as forecast) and the clouds built just as we were approaching Lambay island, to the North of Howth:

At the entrance to Dublin Bay, you get to see Baily lighthouse:

only we were busy slowing down to allow a cargo ship to go into the bay ahead of us, through the shipping channel. We slowly kept going at around 1.200 rpm and 3 knots over the ground which felt pretty pedestrian as we just wanted to get there - tired folks on board by 5pm. We duly let the big guy pass us:

and headed across the bay towards Dun Laoghaire using the "approved" route. Only then the Dublin Vessel traffic Service called us on the radio to say that a dredger which had been pretty much stationary was about to head to the spoil ground to dump its load and they asked us to turn inland, following the cargo ship and then to turn astern of the dredger once it left the bay area. Being obedient folks we did so. Then we heard a call to the cargo ship to say their berth was not clear yet and there would be a 15 minute delay, they were asked to turn around and do a loop around the bay. Wonderful, sure enough we were called and asked to wait for them to turn and then go astern of them. Hence the odd track through the bay:

That added a fair bit of time to the trip, just when we didn't need it but such is life - the entrance to the Dublin docks is pretty manic in shipping terms. We finally entered Dun Laoghaire harbour, avoiding the yachts and dinghies that were racing and onto a pre-arranged berth. It was good to turn off the engine and electronics and contemplate dinner, after check-in at the office of course.

All in all not a bad run considering the weather conditions, the captain had to hose off plenty of salt spray but it really wasn't unpleasant at all. Despite Brexit having happened since our last visit here, we were still warmly welcomed and several local folks wanted to chat about the boat and where we'd been.  Nordhavns are still far from common and elicit lots of interest from yottie types.

Maintenance News:

The starboard navigation light refused to fire up which is just what we wanted at 3:45 am when we were getting ready to head off. The replacement bulb that lives in a handy drawer was fitted and it still did not work. This was very bad news. We discovered that the new spare bulb already had a broken filament, not what you expect or want. Especially as they are expensive little beasts being the higher powered versions. Luckily we keep 4 spares on board so we have a nice green light again.