We are back on Heydays having spent some time back home, renewing our acquaintances with grandchildren, gardens/allotments and general domestic stuff.

Chris is not with us for this leg so it’s just John, James and Yee Tak driving up to Inverness early on Tuesday morning. We take turns driving, 2 hours on and 2 hours off…a bit like being on watch for long sea passages. Breakfast in probably the best
motorway services in the country, at Gloucester Farm Shop, and apart from a few pottystops and hand-overs, we get to Heydays by early evening and it’s great to be back on board…and she smells good too!

We have a couple of day’s worth of jobs planned…including new valves for the toilet…who says sailing is all glamour.

Friday morning and a 5.30am alarm gets us up if not raring. We were woken at times in the night as the rigging was whistling and vibrating in the wind, and the rain lashed down with a fierce drumming on the roof…not conditions conducive to a good sleep. The
forecast is for westerly winds F4 to 6, but with showers for most of the day. The main
reason for relinquishing our pillows so early, is so that we can get the strong ebb current out under the bridge and through the Channory Narrows. We get fully togged up as not only are we expecting rain, but the wind is chilly too.

We called Helmsdale Harbourmaster yesterday to check that there would be space for us, only to be told that due to a winter of South Easterly storms, the harbour and the entrance is silted up and that it is effectively closed to leisure boats. We explain that as a bilge keeler with limited draft, we are used to the south coast mud and are happy to take the ground. After a conversation with his boss, the very helpful Billy said that he
was happy to take us and that if we call when we are close, he will guide us in.

It is brilliant to get the boat ready for the open sea…checking sails, ropes and finalising
the navigation for the day.

Finally…we slip our mooring and slide out into the bright Inverness morning…

With the fresh breeze fine over the port quarter, we opt just for a genoa. Over the years we have found that the old girl sails really well like this, and is easy to tack down wind. The added note here is that we don’t need to push on too rapidly as we can’t enter
Helmsdale until 2.30 at the earliest.

As Inverness falls astern into a brightening sky, we are grateful for our early morning coffee. This is June, but with lots of layers stuffing us up, it feels more like February.

We zig zag through the narrows and then we see them…our first dolphins of this leg. Sadly for us they are more interested in their own breakfast than playing or allowing their photo to be taken, but it is still lovely to see them…

We settle in to the usual pattern of a longish passage, the autohelm doing its job and us watching for the usual pot buoys. Of other ships we see nothing, just a small coaster pushing out eastwards.  

The rain comes and goes and we are thankful for our wet weather gear, but when the sun deigns to make an appearance we are quite pathetically grateful…but it really lifts the spirits.

Lunch of hot soup and bread is a real treat…

…and soon we are contacting Billy the harbourmaster to guide us in across the new sandbanks. We line up the marks and then with a sharp turn into the harbour as instructed we are in and Billy is there to take our lines. 9 years ago we were the first yacht of the season to visit Helmsdale, this year we are also the first of the season to attempt the entrance. Just as we make fast our lines, the sky opens (again) and we retreat inside to dry off.

Billy has only been doing the job for a couple of months, as he used to be a regular fisherman. Now, with a couple of hip ops behind him, his son has the boat and Billy helps out from time to time, although he still has a small boat of his own which he uses occasionally.  Mostly they catch crab, lobster and langoustines which they sell to local restaurants and hotels.

We opt for an afternoon nap and when we wake up, we find that Billy has left us a tub of crab meat. He is due to go out this evening with his son and so we say goodbye and just realise again how friendly and helpful the harbourmasters are up here.

Helmsdale has clearly seen better days, and the storms and silting of the harbour will do nothing to help. With a few forty winks under our eyelids, we head off for a wander round…

to the ‘famous’ La Mirage fish and chip restaurant. It is renowned for its huge portions, its glitzy pink décor and its famous attraction for Barbara Cartland who was apparently a frequent visitor. Under new owners the portions are less enormous, but we still can’t finish everything. We head back to Heydays considerably heavier than when we left and prepare ourselves for another early tide to catch.

The broad plan for ’26, is to leave Coleraine and head up to Islay…with its 9 distilleries, and then work our way up to the Outer Hebrides, before we round Cape Wrath and then to Orkney. Time and weather will dictate any further progress north, before we head south once more down the East coast  of Scotland.  No decisions yet about next winter, but Coleraine has been good to us (and our pockets)…so who knows…?

John and James are coming out early to do the usual pre-season checks and prep. We’ve booked in to have Heydays lifted out…we need to sort some electrical stuff on the mast, insurance has asked for a full survey, and we need to pay attention to her bottom.

But first things first….. Heydays has done really well over winter, snuggly up the River Bann, and we renew our acquaintance with her…and with The Queen’s Arms, where Terry remembers us and welcomes us like locals.

Out of the water the old girls looks good and with a fine bottom…

…so we have a wee celebratory dram as the sun sets over the river.

We gradually tick off the list of jobs, re-wiring on the mast, new hatches…on an old boat, the routine list of repair and maintenance gets longer by the year. By Friday, we’re up to date, apart from making her smell nice and looking less like a den for a couple of old salts, and more like something Yee Tak and Chris would actually want to live in.

We wander in to town to be greeted by Union Flags and the Ulster flag from almost every lamppost, lots of people milling about and police closing roads. It turns out that there is a big event for the marching bands (mostly drum and fife). There must be well over 30 which are still marching over 2 hours after the start…and long after we’ve retired back to our boat.

All very militaristic,  some with innocuous names like the Ballymena Drum and Fife Band, but others with clearer intentions….and most with union flags and assorted orange colours.

We refrain from asking if there are any pictures of the pope!

Our feeling as observers was one of watching long memories and defiance.

Saturday, and the river is buzzing with huge numbers from the rowing club on the opposite bank…

…whilst on Sunday, nothing much happens until 1pm (presumably apart from the church goers at the very many assorted non-conformist churches and chapels).

We decide that we too should have a day of rest, and take the train to Derry Londonderry. Its quite a spectacular ride beside rocky pools and glorious sandy beaches, before we turn into Loch Foyle and the city itself.

This is not the place for a history lesson, but the walls are amazing, and steeped in sectarian memories, both from the siege by catholic James 2nd, and its eventual relief by the protestant Wiiliam of Orange, right up to the watchtowers and dividers throughout the 70s 80s and 90s. Nowhere is free from reminders from both sides…

…and down on the Creggan and Bogside…

But outside these areas, there is a real sign that life is normal once more, and that there is a desire to look forward…

Monday is a slightly apprehensive day with a surveyor due…

He gives her a clean bill of health appart from some corrosion on one of the seacocks in the engine room. This is less good news as failure of these can lead to seawater being more on the inside than the outside of the boat…not normally ideal. There are some brilliantly helpful people around and when gentle persuasion with a big spanner doesn’t work to remnove the old one, a neighbour lends us his angle grinder.

We’ve rented a car for the next two days, partly to fetch Yee Tak and Chris from the airport and partly to let John and Chris do some sightseeing…James and Yee Tak have driven this recently. This turns out to be a brilliant move as we tour the chandlers for essential bits. A special mention has to go to Down Marine just outside Belfast. This is a real Alladin’s cave of boat bits and we get just about everything needed to get the job done.

With our other halves collected, John and Chris trundle off round the Titanic museum (one of the best museums we have ever been to) and the others find a bar… The scenic route along the coast road from Belfast is stunning, and hugs the cliffs and rocky beaches all the way past Ratlin Island, Ballycastle, The Giants Causeway …and Bushmills Distillery. Dinner in Rory McIlroy’s home town of Port Rush sets us up nicely for what will be a hard days work tomorrow.