Dream cruise from Ireland to Scotland
from Guido Dwersteg
In May and June 2023, the POLARIS continued its journey from Dublin to Oban on the west coast of Scotland. There were around 350 nautical miles to cover and the weather forecast promised summery weather with initially good sailing winds and pleasant temperatures.
Before our new guests could move into their berths and cabins, there were still a few small things to do – as is usual on a sailing ship. In addition to the obligatory cleaning of the boat, the two burners for the central heating system installed on the POLARIS also had to be serviced. This was a real acrobatic challenge given the sometimes very limited space available. In the end, however, Uwe and Guido managed to get everything done and the two powerful Webasto burners are now purring like new again.
The first ‘real day’ on board started after breakfast with the on-board and safety briefing, before we finally cast off the lines around midday and headed north. Today’s destination was Malahide Marina, just 12 nautical miles north of Dublin. It was a short sail, giving us plenty of time to familiarise ourselves with the POLARIS and all its controls, lines, sheets and buttons. The approach to Malahide was then really exciting. The very shallow approach had already been indicated on the nautical chart and so, despite the tide already being high enough, we only found a good 2 metres of water depth here and there. Thanks to the variable draught of our POLARIS, however, this was no problem and we were able to tie up the lines in Malahide in the early evening. A really nice marina in a sheltered little bay with marvellous views of the surrounding green meadows and hills.
Incidentally, we had reserved the berth in Carlingford in advance, just like most of the other berths on our trip. Otherwise, with our length of just under 18 metres, it would hardly have been possible to always find a suitable place. In the end, after passing through the very narrow harbour entrance, we were able to move into a nice berth on the outer hammerhead of the jetty in Carlingford and round off the evening with original Italian food. Beautiful here!
When we arrived in Belfast, we went alongside a wooden barque that is over 100 years old. We were moored right in the centre of Belfast and in the immediate vicinity of the famous Harland & Wolff shipyard. This is where the TITANIC was built at the beginning of the last century. We had already been able to marvel at the shipyard site and in particular the futuristic-looking museum as we drove into the spacious harbour. In short, we spent a whole day in Belfast harbour. We used the time to relax, enjoy a delicious meal in the city and, of course, visit the really impressive TITANIC Museum. Well worth a visit!
As we all know, the nights are not particularly long in June and so we were able to make out the first silver lining on the horizon at around 3.30 am. The Scottish coast was also soon in sight, rising mysteriously from the sea, partly shrouded in fog banks. Some of our guests had stayed in the cockpit all night to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. At some point, however, everyone retired to their warm bunks and Uwe and Guido completed the remaining miles on alternating watches.
In Campletown, the sun shone down on us again from a cloudless sky. However, our berth in the harbour was not yet free. So we first moored up at one of the many mooring buoys here and got a few hours’ sleep. Around midday, we were then able to move into the harbour and take our first trip ashore to the picturesque village.
