For sea-faring anoraks only

It was a surprise to myself, but I have, for a long time, had an ambition to visit Strangford Lough (Northern Ireland) and witness the extraordinary exchange of waters which happen at the "narrows" twice a day. It is apparently the largest exchange of tidal waters in Europe. It surprises me that I am interested in such things, but I put it down to some sort of inheritance from my grandfather, Randolph. He worked on a ferry and was a lifetime seafarer. He was shipwrecked nine times (or was it three? or two?). I imagine that if he had been with me a few weeks ago, as I stood at Portaferry and looked at the remarkable current with which the Strangford Lough ferry was having to negotiate, he would have been sucking on his pipe with glee and making that funny "Ghhhaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwww" noise which he used to make in moments of maritime excitement. (My interest in this maritime phenomenum could also be explained by the fact that my father was in the Royal Navy in the Second World War and was an RNLI coxswain and that my mother was in the WRNS and I was born within a couple of stones' throws of the sea.)

Anyway, I have now uploaded to YouTube my little anorakish video of the Strangford Lough Ferry leaving Portaferry on a very windy and reasonably choppy day.