Rowing from Ireland to Scotland

Rod Rows

We chose the day, 12 September, long in advance, as one of the few days in the year when we were all free. The weather forecast was good, and so we arranged to meet at Stranraer for the ferry over. Brian Meharg, who more commonly provides fishing trips and coastal tours, does this kind of thing: see www.irelandtoscotland.com which shows his old boat; he now has a smart new (second-hand) one , which he sailed through the Union Canal from Seahouses. We stayed in Bangor at White o’Morn B&B, which was comfortable, but they were unable to provide the traditional breakfast at 4:30 am - they left out for us the materials, including some pre-cooked bacon, and we were on our way to the harbour at 4:55. Pitch black sky, only the streetlights, and dead calm, hardly a ripple across Belfast Lough, I could see reflections of the lights four miles away in the water. Looked good!

Brian arrived a few minutes later in his big boat, and we lashed the rowing boat behind. This was a old refurbished Lake District rowing boat, solid wood, not at all large, nice chair shape at the back, a flat seat centre for rowing, a small flat seat at the bow. We set off for a convenient bit of the coast.

At 6:15 we started rowing, from just off The Gobbins, Island Magee. The high clouds were turning rosy, but the sun was not quite up. John took first 20 minutes, then Dorothy, then me, and we continued taking 20 minutes shifts. At first, John managed 2.4 mph, Dorothy 2.8, and I did 3.2 - at that rate, average 2.8 mile per hour, we should have finished in under 8 hours. About 9 am, Brian offered us tea and a cheese and bacon roll. I should say, at this point, that I had a Jaguar 65L rucksack packed with all kinds of useful things, some in a waterproof bag, so I was prepared to handle any conditions. Dorothy was minimal, carrying barely enough for the day, and might have needed to borrow a jumper. I was persuaded to leave my bag on the tender boat, so while rowing I had only a water bottle and a bag of bananas, and little else - bad planning!

Gradually the Gobbins cliffs receded, and the breeze rose, from the southeast. The day grew brighter, and the run slowly climbed above the bank of cloud on the eastern horizon. Now we could see more than the lighthouses, there were a few small boats and the occasional larger ship. We saw the Stranraer ferry approach, and I wondered about its wake. I guess there was some radio communication from Brian, because the ferry turned, and slowed right down. Some time after, there was a huge long smooth wave, which was something like fifty yards wavelength, and many feet high, like an ocean swell, or rather like the Royal Commonwealth Pool coming at you. This repeated several times during the row - the ferry was so much faster than us, and made four trips to our one.

As the breeze rose, so did the waves. By early afternoon, they were quite large, and beginning to splash us once in a while. The oars were more difficult to manage, and gave me a few things to think about. Some rowing boats have the oars positively located, either a pin through the oar, or a collar around the oar so it cannot slip through the rowlock. This boat had oars with a long plastic sleeve, and I guess the advantage is that you could place the oars just where you wanted, to get the right leverage and control. The downside of that is, you have to judge where you want it, and then make it do what you want, which is not always so easy. But I guess the pin weakens the oar, and there are more details to fail. I had a lot of time to think about things like that.

The middle afternoon was the worst. The waves were big, it was difficult to measure but I would have said about four feet high, and when we changed places it was necessary to move one person at a time, and to crouch down holding on with your hands and move one leg or arm at a time. We had wondered about the toilet, but peeing over the side was not an option! Earlier in the day, we had climbed onto the tender, not out of modesty so much as to have a stable place to stand. Brian told me later that the bigger waves were due to the tide going the opposite way to the wind, which shortens the waves and makes them pile up. You can see a similar effect at the mouth of a river, flowing into the sea, and I have heard a story about a canoe at the mouth of the Spey capsizing in those conditions. Many waves splashed us, and there were white horses, but we never seemed to be in direct danger of capsizing.

By now our rate of progress has slowed. My GPS doesn’t like low speeds, due to small random errors in position leading to gross errors in small speeds, and so it reads zero for anything less than about 1 mph - well, I didn’t know that before, but now it was obvious. Sometimes we had a brief burst of speed when the waves were favourable, but a lot of the time the GPS just said zero. However, the distance from Ireland did creep up, and the land ahead slowly grew more detailed. We had given up any idea of landing in Portpatrick harbour, the aim was just to get to land, and then the tender would tow us in.

For the last hour, Dorothy suggested that I should just continue rowing, since I was going a bit better, and it seemed as though we were fighting against the tide and waves and at times barely managing to stay in one place. The last hour was increasingly painful. Although I am used to sitting on a flat wooden stool, and riding a bicycle for long hours, I think it is different when your muscles have to work. My sit-bones were not actually bruised, but after 11 hours 20 minutes it felt good to stand up in the tender, and six miles later in Portpatrick it felt wonderful! Even though the quay did bob up and down alarmingly. The pub seemed to do the same, and it was not until I arrived home many hours later that it all calmed down.

As well as feeling bruised, I had two raw patches at the base of my spine. I am not sure whether they were caused by pressure from the seat, or my buttocks rubbing together. The obvious problems we prepared for, such as blisters on the hands, cold and wet, and seasickness, were no problem - it was the unanticipated which caused the pain. But then, that is probably true of the rest of life