We were in Glenarm and an array of storms were coming in and the tide would mean that we would be arriving at a dangerous place late. I wanted to carry on because my heart said go, but in the end my head won and agreed with Beverley to return to Carrickfergus. What could I say but blah

We were in Glenarm and the wind was Force 7. In the bay around Glenarm the water was quite flat, but Beverley could see white caps out in the North Channel. On top of that, if the North Channel was rough then the area of sea around Tor Head would be very risky, so we decided to stay in for the day.

One of the things I managed to complete was a small carpet, which I told Elly was grass. It even had her name in it. It is one of the silliest things I have ever done in my life, but if Elly wants grass then grass is what she gets.

For lunch that day we had bacon pittas which is a great little snack. Very easy and really tasty. The rest of the time we were on our computers working.

The next day was bright and sunny, so it was time to make decisions. The tide would be going North at 16:00 which would mean that we would be at Fair head at 18:00 which is twilight. We could just make it, but then there was nothing but storms for th next three days and some more storms scheduled after that. My heart wanted to carry on but my head said no be realistic. In the end it was the head that won out and and we decided to go south.

Once we had dodged around all the fish farms and various buoys that are in Glenarm bay, we managed to get the sails up. The wind was very light so we put the gybe preventer on. In this case we were not really in need of a gybe preventer, but we were in need of something to stop the boom rolling into the middle of the cockpit.

Soon the wind dropped to zero so we had to rely on the motor completely. It was at this point that I had a rant at the camera. I was not happy, the engine was on, there was no sailing at all and I was just ticked off. Luckily as we turned into Belfast lough the wind returned ad we were able to motor sail again, which is alright.

Even on a fairly boring sail where we are having to motor sail, there is always something to do and today was no different because Beverley and I discussed the clouds that we could see

• Mares Tails - High altitude clouds that indicate that a storm is coming
• Cumulus clouds - These only form over land then drift out to sea, which is why old sailors looked for these
• Very disturbed air - Sometimes it is difficult to define the type of cloud but you can see that there is a lot of disturbance in some areas

That night when we got in, we had steak and chips, which I have to tell you was fantastic