After spending a day at Portavogie while strong winds moderated, we
resumed our progress south on a fine day with scarcely a breeze. On
leaving harbour, we saw that we had got within 200m of our landfall in the fog – so near but so far away! We gave a friendly wave to HM Customs cutter “Sentinel” which passed by. Shortly afterwards, her RIB (rigid inflatable boat) raced up from astern with four burly, black-clad heavies aboard – not the sort to be tangled with. However, they were polite and charming as we were boarded, searched and questioned.
Whatever they were looking for they didn’t find, and we were soon left in peace again. We spent the night at Kilkeel, a busy fishing port with a long, narrow entrance leading to a fully sheltered inner basin, where we tied up alongside the harbour dredger at the harbourmaster’s behest. We enjoyed a stroll round the town before dining out in ther cockpit – our first alfresco meal of the season – on a beautiful evening.