Peel, Isle of Man
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Sun 21 Jun 2015 17:27
54:13.379N 4:41.883W Port Ellen on Islay was lovely but there is a limit to how many distilleries one can visit. We now have a distinct list to port where the malt is stored!Having arrived on Monday we had to wait until the early hours of Friday morning before we could head South. Although the forecast was mainly 4/5 occasionally 6 the westerlies blew hard and the odd boat that arrived from the north experienced winds up to and exceeding 30 knots——and the crews looked suitably weather beaten! Nobody came up through the North Channel or round the Mull of Kintyre so we bided our time and as the wind abated to a forecast of force 4/5 we departed at 0430 on Friday morning to catch the south going tide through the North Channel. We were told by a local that even with a forecast of moderate seas the Channel would still be like a washing machine. What he did not say was that the machine would be programmed to “cold rinse”——a familiar picture.  It blew and it rained but we had a good sail with the wind on the quarter and made good speed with a favourable tide for about ten hours whereupon the wind died, to less than forecast, and so we motored on in a flat sea but still no sun. We decided to make for the Isle of Man and the harbour of Peel on the west coast and we arrived at about 2030. We picked up a mooring outside and spent a good night before going into the harbour the next morning about midday. There is an inner harbour, with a flap cill and swing bridge, which is only accessible about 2 hours either side of high tide. We subsequently learnt that we could have entered the harbour at the high tide in the early hours of the morning (0100) as the bridge and cill can be remotely controlled by the harbour master in Douglas on the other side of the island.  A very pretty place and we received an exceptionally friendly welcome by the harbour master.  The castle at the entrance  the sea front  Note the blue sky----Mark wore shorts for three hours yesterday afternoon, the first time they have made an appearance, but were soon discarded in favour of trousers when the clouds came over, the temperature dropped and it rained! On Sunday morning we visited the Cathedral and then caught the local bus to Douglas and walked along the esplanade in front of all the Victorian buildings. The bus took us through some lovely countryside and villages and we noticed that most of the lamp posts and stone walls all had padding around and along them——The TT races took place last week!!  Sir William Hillary, the founder of the RNLI, was also born here.  A theatre and opera house  and a narrow gauge steam railway that goes down to Port Erin in the south of the island. No time for a ride on the train even though it was Father’s day!  The forecast is westerly force 4/5 veering north westerly and then decreasing force 3 later so we have decided to head south to the south east tip of Ireland, probably Waterford, as the winds are due to go south west later in the week. This is 160 miles but hopefully we might see some sun and warmth especially now the nights are drawing in !!!! |