Staranraer Marina has had a recent facelift and an impressive new shower and facilities block. We were unable to contact the marina on the 5 occasions we tried and just had to arrive and hope. We took a berth on a hammer head and went in search of staff. A phone call to a local control centre and we had a pin number for the marina, but unfortunately not for the shower block.
A quick walk into town and a chat to a local fisherman brought us to the Starfish Eat-In Chippy (great fish, poor chips).
We needed to top up the Diesel and there is no pump in the Marina, so with the help of the harbourmaster, Mick hitched a lift to a local digger company premises, who had a good supply of Red Diesel. Very friendly and helpful.
Once again we had the wind on the nose challenge and took the Engine option. We managed some sailing but wanted to make good time to eat and settle down on arrival. It was a 1 Dolphin day.
18th August - Stranraer to Bangor, Northern Ireland, 10.00 - 18.30 Charge £115 for 4 nights.
Bangor Marina is run by Quay Marinas and is large, well equipped, well staffed, clean and welcoming. The centre of town location is perfect.
We walked onto Main Street and had superb freshly made Pizzas at 'Little Wings'.
19th August - On the Train to the Titanic Exhibition in Belfast - £13.50.
Alighted the train at the newly renamed 'Titanic Quarter' after a quick detour into Belfast Central as we missed the stop whilst booking on 'LateRooms' for Dublin on the 20th.
The Titanic exhibition building is poorly signposted from the train station but we managed in approx 15 mins walk. It is a very impressive building and we booked our tickets on arrival. As it was a Sunday it was very busy and we had a 1 hr and 20min wait. You can book online in advance. It is very popular with people from all over the world we were amazed at the number of nationalities of visitors. It must be a success if people are travelling so far.
During the wait we found out that the Pump House and Slip Way exhibition was approx half a mile walk away and a separate entity, conducted tours are available but we made our own way there and paid £5 each to enter. The Pump House was created to pump the water out of the dock to make it a dry dock for fitting out the ship.
It is a shame that the new attraction building was not built nearer to the existing pump house and slipway. It feels disjointed to the visitor.
The state of the art galleries within the exhibition are very impressive. We particularly liked the 240 degree cinema showing the different floors on the ship and the view of the wreck.
We were disappointed there were no relics from the ship but I think a Las Vegas exhibition bought up most of those.
20th and 21st August - Trip to Dublin to meet Mick's daughter Laura
20th and 21st August - Trip to Dublin to meet Mick's daughter Laura
Coincidentally the Tall Ships were making their way to Dublin for the 23rd so we saw a few on the river.
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