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Sailing in Norn Iron

Sailing in Norn Iron

5393
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5393

    May 22, 2015#1

    Headed off to Lough Beg today with Andy Carden. We met up at New Ferry (East Side - beside the waterski club). There is a new car park with a nice launching slipway.





    Andy's lovely wood gaff-rigged canoe is on the left with Andy watching over it :)

    My battered but highly functional Valkyrie Craft Erne Tourer with Solway Dory Bermuda rig and homemade outriggers is on the right.

    We set off with a pleasant force 2-3 breeze from the west and reached most of the way to Church Island. It was calm on the east side where we drew up for lunch.



    Check out Andy's lovely bent-wood outrigger (and my Kelly Kettle Hobo stove getting the sausages sizzling)



    The sun had come out with our arrival on shore and Andy just had to rest his feet until the fry up was ready



    He was brill at stoking the fire




    And on and on- the KK Hobo is very small so it needs virtually continuous stoking to keep it cooking. :Campfire:



    Then we headed up to see if the Church was holding up alright. The nettles were thigh-deep and the churchyard was ringed with barbed wire but we struggled through and checked out the tower.



    It's quite an impressive edifice - constructed as a "Folly" by the Earl Bishop of Derry in the 1780s so he could see it from his new Palace at Ballyscullion.

    After walking around the coast of the "island" which is actually joined to the mainland now by a stretch of beautiful sedge and lady's smock covered marsh with orange tip and green-veined butterflies, we embarked again and tacked back to New Ferry. The wind had gone round to the north-west so we were going nearly straight upwind all the way back. Altogether a most enjoyable day out on the water.
    The impossible we do at once - miracles take a little longer!

    16K95
    Member
    16K95

      May 23, 2015#2

      Very nice. Looks like a great place to paddle / sail.

      I like the folly..

      :)

      Here comes the future and you can't run from it
      If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it


      Crow Trip Log

      3816
      Member
      3816

        May 23, 2015#3

        It was a good day on the water and the shore. Strenous sailing with quite a bit of sponge work to mop out the spray flying into the boat. Cuckoos and whoopers were the background music. Church Island and Church Strand are iconic places, more so if you read Seamus Heaney. The wind tested our equipment and as always, improvements for next time came to mind. The few aches next day were well worth it.
        "Thus we lead a life of pleasure
        Thus we while the hours away"

        from Thoreau, Voyager's Song

        298
        Member
        298

          May 23, 2015#4

          Those boats of yours are amazing.
          Very ingenious way to deal with the wind.
          I'm jealous.
          Never kiss a man in a canoe

          3816
          Member
          3816

            May 23, 2015#5

            I will add a few more photos. My hands were too full to take any with my camera phone while sailing in the wind.



            On the lee shore of Church Island there was hardly a breath of wind.



            Ladies` smock, in the vast flats of Church Strand.



            Near the finish, in the shelter of another island, I took the camera out again, to catch Windblown in a tranquil moment.

            "Thus we lead a life of pleasure
            Thus we while the hours away"

            from Thoreau, Voyager's Song

            5393
            Member
            5393

              May 23, 2015#6

              Seamus Heaney's poem about finding his cousin shot dead by Protestant paramilitaries is here:
              http://www.magyarulbabelben.net/works/e ... aceLang=en
              The impossible we do at once - miracles take a little longer!