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.