If interest is taken in iron and smelting works, from Douglas to Barrow is about 70 miles; but as the roughest sea in the Channel is met with on a line between Mougold Head (between Douglas and Ramsey) and Liverpool, where the north and south currents meet, perhaps it will be as well, unless the weather be favourable, to keep clear of that part of the English coast.
Kingstown itself is the finest artificial harbour in the world, and to anyone anchoring there for the first time there will be found plenty to occupy at least a week. The clubs are most hospitably inclined, and Dublin being so near makes it a very pleasant spot to frequent.
For the South of Ireland, Queenstown must be the centre from which to work. There are good fishing and lovely bays all round the coast westward, and nothing can equal Bantry Bay, with Glengariff, which are practically land-locked.
The Shannon and West are in no way inferior to the South coast, and there are many nooks and anchorages, too numerous to mention here, where a yacht such as the one described can very comfortably lie, fearless of ocean billows. Now and then seals are to be met with on the West coast, and care should be taken to avoid rowing into any of the numerous caves, which abound round that coast, and are frequented by them, when the tide is on the rise and at three-quarters flood; more than one shooting party has been caught in a trap through the egress having been blocked up.
The North coast is a wild one; but there, again, Port Rush and Londonderry are very safe, and Port Rush is an especially snug little harbour. Care should be taken to work Rathlin Island Sound with the tide, whichever way it is wished to sail, as the tide rush there is very strong. Between Rathlin and Belfast are bays, each of which has its small tidal harbour, and, if the weather is threatening, the distances between them are so short that opportunities can be snatched for going from one to the other. Larne itself is a fine harbour.
Coming from the North to the South of England, a yacht of 30 ft. and 5 ft. 6 in. draught can be taken by train and launched with the greatest ease in Southampton Dock, and Southampton being so near London makes it the rendezvous of many cruising yachts. A good cruise from there is to run across to Havre (Rouen is easily reached by train from Havre, and well worth a visit), thence to Cherbourg, thence through the Alderney Race, between Cape La Hogue and the back of Sark, to Guernsey.
At Guernsey the yacht's copper should be cleaned, if necessary. It is the best harbour in the English Channel for scrubbing the bottom, as there is good mud and a capital supply of running water close and handy at low water. From Guernsey, weather permitting, with the aid of a fisherman or pilot, the yacht can be taken across to Sark one day and to Herm another. Sark is one of the loveliest and most picturesque islands on our coasts. Any trip to Jersey ought to be made by steamer, as it is an abominable harbour for a yacht, the rise and fall of the tide being over 40 feet.
The next sea run may be to Falmouth, thence to Fowey, Polperro (this port had better not be entered except by dinghy, but it is a very quaint little fishing village and not much frequented except by trawlers), Looe (this is an open anchorage), and Plymouth. All these places have beautiful rivers, with the exception of Polperro, and the Fal and Tamar are both navigable at high water some considerable distance up.
Leaving Plymouth, the yacht might very well touch at the mouth of the Yalme, and the dinghy be rowed up the river. Salcomb and Dartmouth should not be left out, and both have rivers, the heads of which should be seen. Dartmouth is a well-known yachting station, and its club is very prettily situated, so that the members have a full view of the anchorage. The tide there is strong, and two anchors will prove better than one.
Torbay comes next in order, working back to Southampton, with Brixham and Torquay; both so often described that it would be wasting space to add anything to what has already been said.