Speedwell of Rhu Ship's Log

10 th to 11 th of July 2012 - The Mainland

Tuesday 10 ^th July

We left Rathlin Harbour to go south along with a couple of other yachts, a French monohull and a German catamaran both soon overtook us. The weather was good, so we could dispense with the oilskins. The tides were strong so we had a couple of knots in our favour and could also sail most of the way, although the wind was directly behind us. We passed close to Fairhead and the coast down to Glenarm where the harbour master told us there would be space alongside the hammer head, which there was.

Once we had secured the boat we went to explore and find out about buses. We found a lovely walled garden at Glenarm which also had a nice tearoom with cake so we treated ourselves. The garden was in full bloom and there were very few people there despite the up coming July 12 ^th bank holiday.

Wednesday 11 ^th July

We went to see the harbour master who told us where to get the bus to take us to Giant's causeway. He warned us that the pubs might be very busy that evening and there would be a big bonfire on the hill as a start to the Orange marches. We had a lovely bus ride along the coast of Antrim and found the Giant's Causeway with it's new visitors centre. We didn't go in, instead we walked around the cliffs and down to the causeway.

Whilst having lunch we bumped into our new friends, the crew and skipper of Dragon King, so we followed them on the bus to Ballycastle where they had taken their boat. After watching the bowls on the green, our bus arrived to take us the full way to Glenarm. The evening was very quiet. Despite the warnings we just saw a bit of smoke from the bonfire.

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