It's been a while because we have been based in Largs for a few days and following the stunning Fife Regatta. The weather has been extremely dismal. The boat's however have been stunning to follow and we have had great company on board as well as on shore.
Yesterday we received Noah back from Suffolk and also Richard Keane joined us too. They arrived at about 8, we went for a couple of pints, ordered a takeaway and went to bed due to an early start today, 4am. One hardly needed to set an alarm because the wind had blown up much more than expected, we were seeing 30knts + in the sheltered marina - we were joined by John Burke and a friend of his at 4:30am and decided we better go back to sleep for a few more hours in the hope the wind calmed! At about 8 the wind in the marina had dropped due to torrential rain - we decided as it is quite difficult to manoeuvre Maud in marinas in calm conditions let alone windy, we should take the window and leave.
There weren't many volunteers to cast off the lines, unplug the shore power, put away the fenders etc in the hammering rain - Harry did it. Noah guided us out and now we are about 45 minutes into our journey to Bangor, Northern Ireland. The latest weather on the VHF has been predicting force 6 to 8 (28mph to 43 mph) - Nasty! Currently the waves are fairly big but spread apart so not toooo bumpy...yet...
Great to be back as a team again and also to be back on the move! Will we see blue sky in Ireland??
Harry