This Friday, 6th January 2023 - TALK: “Three Years Building Boats in the Basque Region by Orlagh Thompson

By January Orlagh will be halfway through her third and final year learning the skills of traditional boatbuilding at Albaoloa, the “Sea Factory of the Basques" in northern Spain.  How can you resist?

See our Event Info page for more details.


"South till the butter melts and turn right"; A voyage from here to the Cape Verdes, to Barbados and through the Caribbean to Cuba, then up the Eastern US seaboard and from Belfast Maine to Nova Scotia before returning down to Florida, out to the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Puerto Rico. Back down through the Caribbean to  Grenada and the ABC islands before returning to Puerto Rico and the Spanish and US Virgin Islands, then to Bermuda and the Azores, finally home to Ireland after Covid.  The voyages of Ian McCrum and the yacht "SHADOWMERE", a 1979 Hallberg Rassy 41 foot ketch. 

 


Come at 7.30pm on Friday 28th October to Portaferry Market House and hear about the latest research involving N. Ireland’s cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) from experts.

This double bill will start with "Not so silent oceans; a listening network for N. Ireland’s marine mammals”, a talk by Dr Suzanne Beck (Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute) which shows that there is more going on beneath the sea’s surface than we realise.

After an interval, during which you can have a glass of wine or a cup of tea/coffee, Cara Bradley (N. Ireland Officer, Irish Whale and Dolphin Group) will tell us about “The use of ‘fin photos’ in tracking individual bottlenose dolphins around the Northern Irish Coast".

Entrance £5 (includes one glass of wine or a cup of tea/coffee).

 


Have a look at three great new entries under ‘Videos’.  
 
They are recordings of talks given as part of a series on maritime heritage earlier this year and supported by the Special EU Programmes Body’s Peace IV fund and Ards and N Down BC.”
 

Relaxing of official regulations allowed our exhibition 'Shipwrecks, Sailors and Seaweed' to open in time for Portaferry’s Gala Week in July with the usual social distancing and other precautions.  We were delighted with the number of visitors, young and old, and with the many positive comments they left.