10 to 14 June 2014 - Northern Ireland to Isle of Man

Tuesday 10 June 2014 – Ballydorn to Audley’s Roads

Down Strangford Lough, carefully avoiding the pladdies. The lough is a huge area of sheltered water but you have to move with great care as there are lots of rocky patches just under the surface.  This results from the geology – it is a flooded drumlin field. The wind was not a good strength and direction (SE 5) for leaving Strangford narrows so we picked up a mooring in Audley’s Roads.

Wednesday 11 June 2014 – Audley’s Roads to Peel (IoM)

The tide runs very fast through the narrows, so it’s a great opportunity to get a record-breaking speed over the ground on the GPS.  However owing to a minor timing error, we ended up motoring against the tide for the last part of the exit through the narrows!

Then a bit of motoring, a good sail with cruising chute, a bit of fog, fog became thicker and it seemed a good idea to take down the cruising chute, which was then very wet with fog. Fog cleared and we arrived at Peel and picked up a waiting buoy.  As there was still a buoy free and we did not want to constrain our departure time we stayed on the buoy.  Met 2 old boys with an old gaff cutter on one of the buoys. They come from Pembrokeshire and their boat has no engine. They seem happy to sail to most places. About marinas they said “we sometimes sail in – they don’t like it!”

Thursday 12 June 2014 – Peel to Port St Mary

Winds seem a bit strange around the island.  We sailed off the mooring and soon dispensed with the reef, tacking slowly S towards Calf Sound.  Here the wind seemed to come ahead so we tacked through the sound, which is quite narrow and with strong following tide so we had to concentrate on the task.  After the sound we had hoped for a gentle broad reach to take us to Port St Mary, but the wind just seemed to give up altogether.  After a bit of messing about we decided that we had already had a good sail and may as well motor the rest of the way. Picked up a mooring. On enquiry it emerged that the owner had not yet launched his boat so we could stay.

Friday 13 June 2014 – Isle of Man tour

My cousin Richard and wife Liz, who live on the island, collected us, took us for a meal and a tour of the island. Excellent day.

Saturday 14 June 2014 – Port St Mary to Douglas

Again we started with a reef, this time a necessary one.  However just round the corner, in Castletown bay, we had to take it out.  Managed to sail all the way to Douglas and after waiting for a while at the harbour wall, entered the marina.