Wednesday 10 July

Another contrast, rain and absolutely no wind at all. No point going anywhere til the wet stopped. Barra, BBC Northern Ireland’s weather forecaster not the island, posted that June was colder than May and then that so far this month, all ten days of it, some 40% of the monthly rainfall has fallen. Thanks Barra! Please could you conjure up some sunshine and warmth?

We busied ourselves with boat jobs. I took advantage of mains power to grind enough coffee beans to last the week then emptied out the shelf over the worktop that contains all our sauces, spices and jams. Each of the IKEA boxes was washed and relined with kitchen roll and the jars sorted so the whole lot were orderly again. Even the perspex sliding doors that keep the boxes in place got a wipe down as did the space above the lockers on either side of the stove.

The skipper went rummaging in his tool boxes and appeared with rivets. Finally the icebox had its retaining strip fixed back in place, meaning that on a starboard tack the contents don’t slide out into the fridge. It’s a little job that took longer to find the tools than to do and had been waiting since we left Greece in 2022!

When the rain stopped we took the rubbish up to the bins and visited the chandlery to see what buoyancy aids they had. My ancient front zip one is looking very battered and though I did buy a new one in 2021 I find it’s pull over your head style very bulky. I’ve enough on my chest as it were without adding extra padding to make getting back in a dinghy even more of a challenge. There was nothing on their rack that said buy me so I’ll continue wearing my almost 30 year old faded and fraying Crewsaver.

Back onboard it was time to go. Our plan for the next few days is to pick up a mooring in Millport this afternoon, then Lamlash harbour towards the southern end of Arran’s east coast on Thursday. Then from there an early morning start to take the tide down the North Channel back to Bangor. We motored across, Millport bay was considerably less busy than Sunday. The sun tried to show its face during the afternoon as we lazed in the cockpit with the tent up. It was warm enough for just t-shirts no jumpers or fleeces.

Early afternoon a group of pipers played by the war memorial, some tunes familiar, some not. The pipes carrying clear across the anchorage in the still air. Another of our Bangor neighbours the motor boat Aphros, arrived and took the mooring next to us. We had a chat just before supper when they came back from a run ashore. They are heading north for a few weeks.

It was a quiet evening. I finished my book, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, highly recommended as a good if thoughtfully challenging read. Kevin listened to the football despite previously claiming to have no interest at all! The weather is grey but dry with a gentle breeze from the north east.