Choppy seas to Ireland

From Port Ellen, Islay to Bangor: The alarm clock rings at 04:30. Climb into layers of wool, then bumblebee yellow raingear. The wind still fills the harbor. So we follow a strict order of untying the lines and manage to extract us from the pontoon, releasing "Babette" into the grey, choppy waters.

To reefs in the sail and a west, veering northwest, wind, whitecapping the waves. But soon the weather calms and we can shake out a reef. The tide is with us and we're going great guns, at the most 10kn. Later on the wind dies, the sun warms up a perfect summer's day. At 4pm we enter Bangor Harbor. Our first sail over to Northern Ireland.

The natives are friendly. We're soon sharing a beer with our nearest neighbors. It seems their home port, Ardglass, is our next port of call, so we have plenty to talk about, even common friends!