Wonder of wonders, it was sunny and dry with a reasonable amount of wind and we had the day off. For Beverley and I this means only one thing. It was time to go sailing. Once out, we had to think about what the heck we were doing, as I like sailing with a purpose. So we discussed some random ideas, then Beverley remembered that she had received an email to say some mail had arrived for us, as someone had an old address from the time we were over in Carrickfergus. So we decided that we would sail over to Carrickfergus to pick it up. So, not a case of snail mail but sail mail.

As we sailed along we had to pass through Belfast's anchor zone for bigger ships. One boat that we passed was the Daytona which is part of the Transatlantic shipping line. It was interesting to see its anchor and the corresponding anchor ball shape to indicate it was at anchor. We then entered the shipping channel making sure that we passed the channel marker to leeward. That way we could not be blown onto the marker.

While we sailed we had to tack several times and the thing that I had to put into action was the slow turn of the wheel. I like to turn the wheel fast, but that effectively puts the breaks on Salty Lass, while a slow turn, turns the boat and keeps everything under control. Well I tried it out and it worked. So now I just have to put it into practice.

It was a great sail, with tacking and sailing, so it was a bit of a shame when I had to put the engine on and motor into Carrickfergus.

Once there I picked up my mail which was a press cutting.