Bangor to Sanda Island

Wednesday 30th June, 2021

After a few days exploring Bangor and enjoying the local passion for ice cream, it was time to head North again. Typically the wind was still blowing from the North making progress up the North channel difficult. We had several options in mind for the next leg, all of them on the Northern Irish coast North of Belfast Lough. So we left Bangor at 4pm with the tide to find 15 knots from the North and perfect flat sea conditions. Starting on a port tack we sailed with the wind picking up and putting us on course for the Clyde. As the afternoon progressed, the wind gods smiled on us and the wind started to swing to the North west putting us on a direct course for Sanda Island, just south of the Mull of Kintyre. We hadn’t even considered this as a possible anchorage, so a quick look at the pilot book and it looked perfect for the night. The wind picked up to 20 knots and the seas stayed flat giving us a wonderful sail all the way to Sanda, arriving at 21 30 that evening.

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The anchorage on the north side of Sanda Island is easy to approach with plenty of room to anchor. There were two other boats in the anchorage when we arrived, and we anchored in 10m with good holding. We woke to thick fog and a windless day. The sun burned off the fog by late morning and we realised what a spectacular and remote place this is. We took the dinghy to shore and went for a walk. Its a spectacular island and the highlight was seeing a huge herd of deer and stags on the mountain

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