Bangor, Belfast and Basil

We had a cracking sail from Peel to Belfast Lough and were very pleased that we made the decision to call Carrickfergus Marina on the mobile, rather than waiting to use the VHF just as we were arriving at its entrance. It transpired that a major dredging project, due to be completed at the beginning of April, had over-run badly and the marina is closed until the end of May. We diverted to Bangor, on the south side of Belfast Lough, and were very happy that the decision was made for us. Bangor town has a sadly run-down feel to it but we were given a brilliant welcome from members of the very smart Royal Ulster Yacht Club and a 20-minute train ride took us to the Titanic Quarter, formerly part of the huge Harland & Wolff dockyard and now home to the amazing Titanic Belfast Centre.

The Titanic Centre is a wonderful building, opened ten years ago

The place takes you through the history of shipbuilding in Belfast and then shows just how the Titanic was built - including an excellent 'dockyard tour' in a six-seat monorail car - moving on to stories of the sinking (including chilling recorded testimonies of survivors) before finishing with awesome footage of the wreck on the seabed, shown on a huge screen. We spent nearly three hours in the building before visiting the Nomadic, a 1000-passenger tender, also built at this yard, that was used to transport 290 or so passengers joining the Titanic from Cherbourg on her fateful maiden voyage.

The slipway where Titanic was built and launched

A model showing the new building next to the slipway. 

The launch - we were surprised at how much of the superstructure was yet to be built

Workers dwarfed by the three propellers

The Harland & Wolff yard built hundreds of ships and, at its peak in the Second World War, employed 35,000 people. Today, it's all but gone; the last ship was launched in 2003 and now just over 100 people are employed to carry out ship maintenance projects and some oil rig and wind farm work. The two huge cranes, Samson and Goliath, still dominate the site but sit as immobile memorials to the incredible work that once went on here.

Today we've moved on again, with a gentle motor and sail north up the Antrim coast, assisted by a two-knot tide.

The P&O ferry from Loch Ryan (Stranraer) to Larne. We slowed down to give it plenty of room - with the recent publicity of crew sackings, we didn't want to test their seamanship!

Our first chance to fly the Parasailor this year

Glenarm is a small, council-run marina that we visited many years ago in our previous boat, Gentoo. A new, third pontoon has now been added to increase its capacity.

The little town doesn't have a lot going on, it must be said, so we'll probably have another short, light airs passage up to Rathlin Island at the very top of Northern Ireland tomorrow. Short, light airs passages really suit our third crew member, Basil, who is really enjoying the voyage so far and adds a certain something to mealtimes: