Crab, basking sharks and giants, its been quite a few days! Now the wind is back it continues to dog me although the weather has been fantastic; as I went north the winds were  northerly, now I am going east they are easterly and tomorrow as I head south, well, you guessed it! Still, I am sitting out in the cockpit as I write this at 8 o'clock in the evening supping a glass of fine brandy left by Chris, it ain't that bad! Indeed, I have had more sunshine in the last few days than the whole of the rest of the trip put together!

On thursday evening  I left Derry and  anchored in a pretty little bay where there were some fisherman coming in from the days crabbing. I rowed over to ask them if I could buy a crab for tea; I came away with a monster and they wouldn't take a bean! I looked up on the internet to see how long to cook the crab for and it gave a tip as to how to cook him in a more humane way than just dunking him in boiling water. You hold him above the water, stroke his head until he falls asleep then lower him gently into the boiling water- yeh right!!

On Friday I continued east heading for the north east corner of Ireland. I had heard that this was basking shark country; they are a very large shark but harmless as the eat plankton, scooped up in their huge mouths as the whales do and they did not let me down - they are HUGE!! The dorsal fin is very un-shark like, more like a dome than a fin, so large it cannot support itself and flops about (it rather goes with the whole cuddly image of the basking shark which at worst could suck you to death!) It sticks about 2' out of the water.

This  photo doesn't show the fin very well, it has flopped over to the side so looks a little more shark like! I saw 3 altogether, one fairly small at about 15' long the other two about 25' and 30' respectively, that 3/4 of the length of my boat!!! This fellow past right down the side of the boat about 3' away, all very exciting!

This morning I set of at 7 to beat the crowds at the Giants Causeway, a rather extraordinary rock formation caused by basalt shooting up through the earths crust umpteen million years ago. As the basalt solidifed it did so into columns that are (nearly) all polygons, pretty wacky! The call it the Giants Causeway because it forms a bit of a path out to sea and is said to be the causeway the Irish Giant took to go and see his girlfriend in Scotland where ther is a similar causeway coming out of the sea!

There was I!

This afternoon I bashed another 30 miles east in an increasingly strong wind; at force 6 beating becomes pretty hard work!
Tomorrow I head around the north east corner heading south east for home (you guessed the wind direction). I have been able to see Scotland clearly for the past few days; Islay and the Mull of Galloway have been quite clear. Tomorrow I head down the channel between Ireland and Scotland, the Mull of Kintyre is only 15 miles from the Irish coast! I may not have the wind with me but if I time it right I will have a ripping tide of about 3 knots with me; 3 knots (nautical miles per hour) doesn't sound much but when you're only travelling at 6kts it make quite a difference!
My adventure is coming to a close now, tonight I am 130miles from Holyhead (as the crow flies, not necessarily as the boat sails!). There is an Easterly gale coming in on wednesday so I want to get back before it comes in. I am picking up James Bailey, a friend from Rhosneigr, tomorrow night in Belfast. He will do the last 2 days with me, one further day south down the coast then the hop back over the Irish sea to Holyhead. And so the Irish adventure ends! I will sign off now. Thank you for reading. I know most of those who have been following us but in case I have missed you do please drop me a line at jeffwrinch@btinternet.com and let me know, it's always nice to know who is out there. I very much hope to continue the adventure next year.
Jeff

What a place of contrast. Derry, as its know to everybody here but known as Londonderry to the Nationalists and to us in England, epitomises the catholic v's protestant, Irish v's English struggles of the last 500 years. The city's medieval walls enclose an attractive, affluent staunchly protestant population whilst just outside the walls to the west is the now infamous, run down, poor, catholic Bogside area, so named because it was built on the boggy banks of the River Foyle and is to where catholics were banished  since inception of the city.
All the way round Ireland we have been learning of the dreadful oppression of the Catholics by the English protestant intruder who, although arriving much earlier, really started to rule the island about 500 years ago when catholics were regarded as no better than animals and treated as such. In the last 100 years catholics have risen from animals to second class citizens, it is no wonder that things erupted the way they did in the '70's. There is an awful lot here that doesn't make one proud to be English.

Since 'The Troubles' settled down things have returned to normal here, mostly. The police station still looks like this, police drive round in armoured landrovers, when on the streets they carry automatic weapons and houses on the short walk up the hill from the Bogside to the city walls still have mesh shutters over them.

'The Troubles' are recorded as 'Bogside Art'  in the area of the Bogside where all the riots took place (most notably 'Bloody Sunday' in 1972) . Entire gable ends of houses are painted with scenes such as these:-

Free Derry is a slogan painted on a house here as long ago as 1960 and refers to the area being 'free' from firstly RUC and then the English army. The Bogside became a 'no go' area for the authorities in 1970, kept out by manned barricades. There are commerative plaques on the walls of houses, one I saw in memory of a 4 year old boy killed by a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier.

Lest they forget.

Back on board fit and well! The trip to the hospital gave a positive result so I was able to head out to the sun with the right drugs finally. A week on the antibiotics, sun and plenty of rest has done the trick happily; the infection has gone and my chest is almost cleared up so I am now back on the boat for the final leg. Paul had other things to do so I am currently on my own but a friend of mine from Rhosneigr may join me in a few days.
I picked up the boat from Sligo on Friday, a little sooner than planned but the winds were due to die for a week so I grabbed the opportunity to get round to the north of Ireland before they did drop, the wind was however northerly and so against me. 3 days sailingand 100 miles later I am in a beautiful sea loch called Loch Swilly, 10 miles from Derry (also known as Londonderry) in County Donegal; what a beautiful place. The wind has now died for a few days and the sun is out so I am heading out on my trusty bike tomorrow to explore the hinterland!