Day 27

We spent last night in Dunseverick Harbour where John Johnson has an exhibition centre - he spent over an hour bringing us through all of the items he had on display e.g. lumps of coal from the Titanic, war memorabilia from World War I and World War II. If you are ever in the area - well worth a visit. John's knowledge about the history of the local area was very interesting. I forgot to mention yesterday that after we left Giants Causeway we came across a BBC Film Crew who were filming the 40th anniversary of a dive on the Spanish Armada ship - the Girona, which sank in 1540. The original diver was reenacting the dive he originally made in 1967 (despite Tonys best efforts he didnt manage to get on camera!). Up this morning at 7 a.m. and on the water for 8.50 a.m. Thanks again to John for all his help. We paddled from Dunseverick Harbour to Kinbane Head, for a change the wind was at our backs and the tide was in our favour. The only downside was the heavy fog which kept visibility down to less than 100 metres. In the good paddling conditions we were averaging around 6 mph and were making great time. We rounded Fair Head shortly after 12 noon. That was it - we had paddled the north coast of Ireland! (its all downhill from here...) We rounded Torr Head and then Runabay stopping for lunch in Cushendun. We stopped for about an hour before making the 8 mile open crossing to Garron Point. Once past Garron Point we headed directly to Carnlough although due to a slight miscalculation we ended up in Glenarm about 2 miles further south. We stopped in the marina and the harbour master sorted us out with showers, a place to keep the boats and somewhere to camp for the night. He even drove us into Carnlough in order for us to get something to eat. Many thanks! We are back now in Glenarm in the Bridge End Tavern having a couple of pints to celebrate Dereks 41st birthday. Fair play to Tommy Fitzgerald who has driven up from Larne to meet us. Its nice to see a face from home. Plan for tomorrow is to get up early and follow the tide as far south as possible, hopefully getting past both Larne and Belfast Lough. 35 miles and 7 hours 36 minutes paddling...
p.s. Tony wants to know how many paddle strokes do you think it will take to get us all the way around Ireland....Prize to be sponsored by O'Mahony Cycles(?!)(a paddle stroke is every time you put a blade in the water...) Postcards and answers etc...

O.k o.k. Derek I know it's my round....!