There was diesel in Port Ellen but only in cans, yet again I was grateful for the decent range I had with Start Me Up, it was 65 miles on to Bangor Marina and we had just over half a tank left since filing up in Tobermory.

The north coast of Ireland was some 20 miles away and the high cliffs east of Ballycastle and beyond Rathlin Island were quickly visible even though it was a bit of gloomy day. To the east of us was the Peninsular of Kintyre leading to the Mull of Kintyre, of which a song was co written by a mate of mine, Denny Laine, and who, in my opinion, doesn’t get as much credit for the original Wings band with Paul McCartney as he should.

Anyway, a quiet and incident free passage was enjoyed and four hours later we were alongside the very pleasant fuel pontoon to refuel the boat. 

Bangor was the first marina since we left Eastbourne Sovereign Harbour that was a sizeable facility with excellent security and all of the other facilities a passage making motorboater could wish for. It was also very near to the town centre restaurants, shops and pubs, plus it had a railway station. 

The weather looked like it was going to become a little bit unfriendly over the next few days and that coupled with Nigel and myself being expected to attend month end birthday celebrations back in Sussex resulted in us travelling home from there for our second break from proceedings. We were approximately two thirds of the way round. The next series of legs would get us to the south coast of Cornwall where I had decided to conduct my quest to find the best Cornish pasty.

We had a day in Belfast where we had to go to arrange our train/ferry/train trip back to Lewes in Sussex. It wasn’t possible online. I was the last there 25 years previously seeing a potential supplier, the place and its vibe were unrecognisable from the city I visited then.

We returned home on the 26th June.

To be continued.