All alone in Norn Iron (but not for long)

After the Welsh connection left us, we managed to keep ourselves amused. First of all, George (the man we met on his yacht in Stornoway) kindly popped around to tell us a little about the area and Strangford Lough in particular as he had berthed there for many years. That was very useful - lots of "inside information" that you don't find in the almanac or pilot books.

Then we dropped the little rental car off and were royally entertained to dinner in Belfast by Keith and Julie who also provided a taxi service back to Bangor. (Taxi? An AMG Mercedes taxi? Probably not the normal sort of car used for a taxi although our United Arab Emirates reader might disagree)

We had a little Nordhavn trip out to Groomsport and back so that Ken could experience an elderly Nordhavn underway. (For those of you with excellent memories, you might recall that Debbie, his better half, did some circuits and bumps on our last stay here). Remember the coaster loading at Loch Aline?

Well, Ken brought along some wonderful memorabilia from her launch ceremony in Germany, including a menu printed onto material rather than paper and personalised with his name (mind you, they didn't translate it into English for him!)

We then went mad and spent far more time than we wish to remember polishing the superstructure. We had planned to crawl down the coast of Ireland, stopping off in Strangford and then probably Dun Laoghaire near Dublin. Well, the promised winds and our stupidity / desire to finish off the polishing got the better of us and so we stayed put. And worked. And then worked some more. Still, it was good for the soul (so people tell us).

Another trip to the Green Chilli Indian restaurant was needed of course to keep the polishing enthusiasm going.  This time with David and Caroline and Phillip, David's significantly better behaved brother. The boys had returned minutes beforehand by yacht after visiting the Isle of Man Classic TT races  Of course, the food was excellent once again. We are going to miss that place. We mentioned the "expensive interior refurbishment" website comment before - well, you can judge for yourself:

We still think that the builder is enjoying his house in Barbados.

As a break from all this wild activity, we took the train into Belfast again. A little light shopping and heavy wandering around followed. We must be looking more and more like locals as the touts who try to sell you guided bus tour tickets left us alone this time, perhaps the odd rain shower had dampened their enthusiasm for the job:

Some planning for the last few sea miles of the season ensued. The trouble was that the weather didn't want to play ball. A brief calmer spell then more wind, then another brief calmer spell. We need about 34 hours for a run direct to Milford Haven, or we can break the trip by stopping in gruesome Holyhead or by popping down the Irish coast (Arklow then Dun Laoghaire perhaps). Of course, the "calmer spells" don't coincide with fair tides for the trips. Still, we have no particular time pressure.