The Isle of Man

Tides forced us to have a leisurely departure from Whitehaven, to be followed by anything but a leisurely sail across the Irish Sea - a 55 mile beat, wind strength 15 to 20 kts, sail change from #2 to #4 and two reefs - a bit of a wake up after our two weeks on land!

We arrived in Douglas in the early evening, passing the Tower of Refuge, built in 1832 on Conister Rock - Having been washed into the sea whilst undertaking a rescue, Sir William Hillary decided it was too far for sailors to swim to shore so decided to build it as a place of refuge for stranded sailors to await rescue!  Sir William Hilary is better known for his earlier idea of having trained people and suitable vessels for rescuing people at sea - now known as the RNLI.

Douglas Harbour Tower of Refuge - previously kept well stocked with fresh water and bread.

The rather narrow harbour entrance, under the lifting bridge.

A nice little harbour, with the usual 'works in progress'

The Isle of Man is very well set up for tourism, and seemed to specialise in ancient forms of transport:  We decided a day of sight seeing was in order:

First stop:  The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway - started in 1876, several of the original carriages are still in use. The world's oldest surviving horse drawn tramway.

Then onto the Electric Railways which date back to the Victorian times - up to the highest point on the island, Snaefell Moutain.  Alledgedly, from this point you can see England, Scotland, Irteland and Wales - not the day we were there though, we needed a compass to find our way down through the clouds.

Having survived the ascent, we decided to walk down to Laxley - the sheep clearly found us fascinating!

The scenery was fantastic, the path very hard to find!

Eventually we came to the Laxley Wheel, aka 'The Lady Isabella' - a huge water wheel, built in 1854 to pump water out of the lead and zinc mines.  It is the largest working water wheel in the world - although it now only works for tourism - with a diameter of 72.5 feet and a circumference of 228 feet.  In its heyday it pumped 250 gallons per minute from the mines 1500 feet below ground.

By this time we had had enough History and Tourism, and it was time to get back on the water.  We planned to go to Peel, via Calf Sound.

Chicken Rock, the Southernmost tip of the Island.

The Light beacon in Calf Sound.

Beautiful scenery on the way to Peel.

We arrived in Peel too early for the Harbour entrance tide, so spent a few hours on a mooring buoy in Peel bay, watching the sun setting over the castle

The next day we walked up the hill behind the port then around the castle - a great little walk, made all the better as there were seals playing in the surf.

Later in the day we saw a basking shark just off the harbour entrance.

Peel itself is an attractive little town, plenty of restaurants, a good marina and lots of places to walk a dog.  Perfect for Zilla.

There are some quite unusual boats in the marina.

While in the Isle of Man we met up with my first cousin once removed, Nicholas, his wife Alice and their two little daughters - they now live here, and we'd not met since their life before children.  It was great to catch up, and having now visited the Isle of Man I can see why they chose to live here.

The wind increased during the night, and by the next day it was decidedly rough:  We checked out the sea and decided the Marina was the place to be!

The Laundry is now done, we have walked to the North and the South, and Manx Kipers have been eaten:  Hopefully we will be able to sail on to Ireland tomorrow.

The Blog Is Back! Whitehaven and beyond ...

The 100 mile crossing to Whitehaven was our fastest yet - Bangor to Whitehaven in 15 hours, a reach all the way with the wind building all the time.  Slightly stressful entry into Whitehaven as there is alledgedly a dredged channel that must be followed, but we couldn't find any way of clearly identifying it! 

Whitehaven has the distinction of being the only place in the UK invaded by the Americans - or at least one American, John Paul Jones in 1778 - the story goes that he landed, half his party went and spiked the cannons that protected the port and the other half got drunk in the pub!  Three ships were sunk, and John Paul Jones has been immortalised in brass and to this day the American Navy make an annual pilgrimage to Whitehaven to pay their respects.

Nick and Debbie came to visit us in Whitehaven, fresh from walking the length of the Caledonian Canal.  Unfortunately the wind continued to blow - sailing was not going to happen just yet.

We checked out the conditions and decided against sailing.

Zilla checked out the sea and decided a walk was in order.  Nick was not happy about it, but bowed to peer pressure in the end.

We walked up the hill past the 'Candlestick' - comissioned by the Lowther Family, who at one time seemed to own the entire town.  The 'Candlestick' was a ventilations shaft for the coal mine which was the first pit to extend  2km under the sea at a depth of 138m - all this back  in 1729.

The wind continued to blow the next day, so rather than risk another walk Nick took us to the Lake District instead. 

Beautiful scenery.

Lots of dry stone walling.

Very steep hills, roads at a 30% gradient.

An interesting variant of Traffic Calming Measures.

Coniston Water - where Donald Campbell died in 1967 attempting to break the Wold Water Speed Record.

Derwent Water.

One of the many waterfalls.

Eventually the wind calmed down, and on the last day of Nick and Debbie's visit we were finally able to go sailing.  At first we thought that the crowds on the breakwater were there to see us off, but then realised they were in fact boarding the Balmoral,

The Balmoral is part of the Waverley Steamship Group but is much newer, having been built in 1949 and does passenger cruises around the UK.  Its first ever international voyage took 200 passengers from Eastbourne to Boulogne in 1996.

Debbie needed a hug when she realised how much her sailing outfit clashed!

Debbie practices her knots.

Debbie takes the helm.

Nick takes us back to Whitehaven, and we pack up to go back to Bexhill to sort out things down South.

A quick tour of Whitehaven Marina in the dinghy is an experience not to be missed!

So - back to dry land for a couple of weeks, then on to the Isle of Man

The Blog takes a Break

We have had to abandon Etoile for a couple of weeks to sort out things on land - but don't worry, Etoile is safe in Whitehaven Marina where she will remain until Tuesday 23rd when we will continue our journey.

Our visit to Ireland was too fleeting to do it justice, so we plan to return there via the Isle of Man to discover more of the wonders of the coastline!

Northern Ireland and the Giant's Causeway

Having waved goodbye to our visitors in Ardrossan we planned to go to Troon, then Stranraer.  In the manner of all good plans, we changed it because there actually was a decent breeze blowing in the direction of Campbeltown.  It wasn't our day, the wind didn't last and we had to resort to Motor Sailing - sadly this means that we have now spent £8 more on Diesel than on Calor Gas.



Drifting towards Campbeltown, Sprigs not happy. Ailsa Craig rock visible for the last time in the background.

Seven hours later we had completed the 40 nm trip and were rewarded with yet another Scottish Sunset over Campbeltown Harbour



We had already seen the Highlights of Campbeltown on our last visit, so spent our time there planning the crossing of The North Channel to Ballycastle (Northern Ireland).  Having read the Irish Sea Pilot Book, a stiff drink was required to summon up the courage to attempt the crossing!  To quote:  The Northern Channel constitues one of the greatest challenges to a cruising yacht in the waters of the British Isles due to its tidal races and overfalls.

We had certainly used up our quota of sunshine in the Clyde, and the Southern tip of the Mull of Kintyre was only just visible through waves of very heavy drizzle. Fortunately this only lasted a couple of hours and by the time we were in the North Channel we had a decent breeze and the sun was out again.  As we neared the race between Rathlin Island and the Irish coast we averaging 10kts SOG in 13 kts wind speed.

Ballycastle Harbour, NI

We never did find out why the fishing boats appeared to have Car Wash Brushes attached.

View to the West - Mull of Kintyre visible in background

Ballycastle Beach - perfectly formed surf, Rathlin Island in background

Ballycastle is a short bus ride from the Giant's Causeway - one of the Natural Wonders of the UK - it consists of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic activity. 

Legend has it that the Irish warrior Finn McCool (Fionn mac Cumhaill) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish Counterpart Benandonner.  It is justifiably the most visited tourist attraction in Norther Ireland and a World Heritage Site.

The Bushmills Whisky Distillery just happened to be a couple of miles away - Zilla needed a good walk, and it is the considered to be the oldest licenced distillery in the world.

It did look rather like a prison

Our next destination was Bangor, which involved sailing back into the Rathlin Tidal Race.  We left Ballycastle in 5 kts, wind against tide, and by the time we got to the race it was 13 kts and still wind against tide - an interesting sea with some spectacular tidal eddies.  At one stage we found ourselves going sideways and had to use the motor to escape the eddy.  We made good time to begin with, but the wind later died and it took us 8 hours to cover the 40 miles to Bangor.

East and West Maiden Lighthouses - clearly the place to go if you want to be really alone!

We arrived in Bangor in time to see the Race Fleet prepare for the Thursday Evening race - there were 6 Waverleys - the oldest ones built in the late 1900's, and this is the newest one in the fleet: circa 1954!



A 'New' Waverley paddles out to the race.

The Fleet struggle on in ever dropping wind.

The race is finally abandoned as a spectacular rainstorm hits Bangor!

So:  We have learnt that our 'Three Wise Men' have now become 'Four' - welcome to John Hume, originally from Scotland, who acts as a consultant for the Ancient Mariners and is following our progress from his home in New Zealand.

The Plan:  next stop Whitehaven (the home of the Brocklebank shipping line) - could be an early start for us, one for the watchers Down Under.