2024-01-07

Woke up at 8:30am, which I had assumed was the absolute latest I could be up without holding everyone else up (we were supposed to be out of Portpatrick harbour by 10am, as the tide was falling, and we risked scraping the bottom on the way out!). Turns out I was not the last to wake up! Made a beeline for the bathroom, was ready for breakfast, and had almost finished when a couple of guys returned from their morning walk/photography. So much for being early. Hugh was trying to hide his worry of getting the boat scraped on the bottom, and we did manage to get out of the harbour without incident at about 10:45am! There was no wind to speak of, and the tide was with us at the start and against us towards the end, so we motored to Carrickfergus without incident, making it with about half an hour to spare before dark. Motoring on such flat seas was so boring that I even had a few short naps on the way, before I took the helm for the second half of the journey! Had a cup of tea (which we made as we were heading to Carrickfergus but which I couldn't drink as we had arrived by then), packed up and made sure I didn't leave any belongings behind, and rode back home, stopping for groceries on the way. Once home, I was so tired I literally crashed at 6 or 7pm, only waking at 3am because I was so hungry. Today would have been dad's 78th birthday, and was exactly two eyars after his funeral.