From Carrigatuke GI/CA-003, it was a fair old way back to Belfast. We drove north to Armagh, and then north east on the A3, A27 and M1. The ambitious plan on the evening of Saturday 31st May 2014 was to squeeze in an activation of Cairngaver GI/MM-017 before catching the overnight ferry.  Cairngaver, which is prounounced with a silent 'g', is not really a Mourne mountain, but lies on the south of Belfast Lough between the capital city and Bangor. It is very close to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. I was watching the clock anxiously at all times. Could this really be done? We were pushing it!

Jimmy directed me onto the concrete road past the farms and up to the summit of Cairngaver. We grabbed our stuff out of the car and legged it to the trig point, beside which I set up the SOTAbeams EFHW system and FT-817. Jimmy MI0HGY/P, was not going to set up the MFD here, but attempt to activate using only handheld and rubber duck. We thought he would have a reasonable chance of achieving this, being so close to Belfast.

Well, nearly. He quickly got to three contacts on 2m FM, but that was the end of that. He couldn't get a fourth for love nor money. What he could do however, was ask one of the local stations just worked to listen for me on 12m SSB! For I was struggling to even get a single QSO on 24MHz. Fortunately, 2I0ETW was able to oblige, so the multiplier was in the bag at least.  I moved to 20m CW, but only raised EA2LU. The clock definitely seemed to be ticking faster, and I had earlier said that we needed to be away by 9pm at the latest, with check-in closing for our sailing at 9.30pm. At 8.53pm, I self-spotted on 40m SSB, with Jimmy needing one contact and me needing two. The comments field was populated with "Help!".

Six minutes later, we had both qualified the summit. Six minutes after that, we were packed up and leaving the summit, five minutes later than my earlier self-imposed curfew. Jimmy's directions now needed to be spot on - and they were. I rolled into the check-in at Belfast harbour at 9.25pm, and apologised for being late. "Ach, no bother, you're fine" replied the girl on the check-in. One more car rolled up behind me, so we weren't even the latest!  After parking up and locking up on the vehicle deck, we went straight to our cabin and got showered and changed. Then it was straight down to the grill and bar for a celebratory meal and beverage. My ribeye steak and chips and two pints of Guinness went down without touching the sides as we sailed out of Belfast harbour. There was no danger of not sleeping well in that cabin on this occasion! Even Jimmy got a decent sleep.

All in all, a terrific week in GI, and we now have three of the five SOTA regions there fully completed. Many thanks to all the chasers, especially those that went the extra mile to help us out when required.