Isle of Man

Route

Track, showing how course is deflected by tidal streams

Notes

Originally we had planned to go to Cemaes Bay on the morning of the 24th and set off for Castletown. However, the weather on the Tuesday evening was bad enough to put Derek and Carole off from coming over. The forecast was South West force 4-5 with worse coming:

St Davids Head to Colwyn Bay, including St Georges Channel.
24 hour forecast:
Wind: southerly 4 or 5 becoming variable 4, mainly southwesterly by late Thursday.
Weather: rain then fair.
Visibility: moderate or good.
Sea State: slight or moderate, but rough at times in the south.
Outlook for the following 24 hours:
Wind: southwesterly 4, increasing 5 to 7.
Weather: rain at times.
Visibility: moderate or good, occasionally poor in the south.
Sea State: slight or moderate, increasing moderate or rough.

However, looking at the weather from WindGuru Pro and the Isle of Man shipping forecast it was clear that Thursday was going to be a day of light winds, with windy days either side.

We decided that it was Thursday or no go! We were in contact with Derek and Carole over this and we agreed to set off on the Wednesday evening, stop over at Porth Wen overnight and set off at 4am for Castletown on Thursday morning. We hoped that this would get us to Castletown before the weather turned rough.

We were already at home so we decided to cancel our holiday for the Wednesday and work from home. We did however keep an eye on the weather throughout the day! We met up with Carole and Derek at the yacht club at about 1830 and I showed my calculations to Derek for the route from Porth Wen to Castletown – 340 degrees. This was calculated from looking at our leaving time (0400) in relation to Dover High Water, and using the tidal stream atlas to calculate our deflection per hour, assuming a 10 step course (averaging us at about 5 knots). Adding all the deflections up gave us a course of 340 degrees, taking variation into account.

There was a fair degree of trepidation amongst the gallant band of explorers at this point – rough weather seemed to be encroaching the days we intended to sail!

Wind guru predictions

We eventualy left our moorings at just after 2000 on the Wednesday evening, after both boats restocked their supplies of fuel. We had a fully reefed mainsail already set up.

The following light wind played havoc with the boom; Carolyn narrowly avoided the boom on one occasion and in fact we found out later that Derek was hit twice.

We were enjoying the sail by the time we got through Puffin Sound - there was a beautiful sunset across red Wharf bay:

Cloth Porridge on Red Wharf Bay

By the time we got to Point Lynas it was around midnight and pitch dark. We went on to Porth Wen where there was one other boat. We anchored in approximately 8m of water. Our initial attempt at anchoring caused us to drift back too close to the other boat for comfort so we re-anchored. By the time we got into bed it was 0130...

Rising bright and early at 0355 was no problem (hah). The morning promised us a comfortable crossing. Derek did a TR to Holyhead – no response until approx 5 miles out from Anglesey – why?

It turned out WindGuru was correct and there wasn’t enough wind for sailing. What there was seemed to be on the nose – possibly because we were making it. So there was no option but to leave the main up, roll the foresail up and motor all the way to Castletown. The sun was out for the majority of the 11 hours we motored up the Irish Sea.

We saw no other ships, something that Took several catnaps along way.

We arrived in the vicinity of Castletown at 1515.  Our course heading was spot on!  All the east and west deflections had been correctly calculated.

Approaching Castletown

It was too early to go straight in as the tide was out, so we moored up on a visitors buoy.  Derek told Liverpool C.G. we had arrived safely. We then went ashore on the dinghy to meet the harbourmaster and get cards etc.

We managed to sneak in at about 1915. We tied against wall – and went to the Glue Pot pub.  This turned out to be very smokey – the pre-TT races were on – classic motor cycles. We spoted the Saffron Indian restaurant and agreed to go there on Friday night. We slept like a log.

Carolyn was a bit scared by the climbing down from the wall on the ladder:

On Friday we took it easy, and went for a walk around Castletown:

We later went to the Nautical museum, where the guide was very talkative.  The exhibition was of a mad house made by a mad man who had a mad boat. 

We then went for a walk along the coast in deck shoes – very muddy for expensive deck shoes.

In the evening we went to Saffron for a very nice meal.

On Saturday we got some fillet steaks from the v. good organic butcher. We then took a steam train into Douglas:

This was amazingly quaint!

Derek wanted to go to a shopping centre for lunch to admire the architecture.

We walked on to the IoM museum - the video good. The steam train back left quite early - about 1600.We decided it was going to be too noisy /smokey in pubs so stay in all evening.

We then prepared for the trip back in the morning.  Derek helped with the radar reflector, he had noticed it was hanging incorrectly on the way over. We worked out course to steer on way back – 156 degrees, and leaving at 1000 direct to Puffin Sound. We filled with diesel, noticed that consumption was about 11L after 15 hours steaming.

The meal we cooked was a la carte – fillet steaks in pepper sauce!  Followed by cards and wine.

On Sunday, we left as soon as floated (which was 1000). It took us 11 hours back to Puffin. One ship was heading for us but it diverted around us:

Near miss!

Obviously our combined radar reflectors were working! The wind was fairly moderate but did gust to F7 at times. Sea state was slight to moderate:

At least it was nice and sunny. We had to make some course corrections as we headed across the bay to make sure the flood tide didn’t sweep us around the wrong way past Puffin. Point Lynas was seemingly on the same point of the guardrails for ever! As we crossed Red Wharf Bay, we phoned Llew and found out there was music and extension until 2330 that night in the Bull.

Derek had been motor sailing for quite a while while we sailed trying to match speeds! We course changed to 180, and swept nicely into PS, entering Puffin Sound at 2100. We then had to put the foresail away as wind was now on the nose. I tidied up boat so ready to go ashore immediately in order to catch last orders. Phone went as we talked to derek (2235) who was going to spend night on CP and go on Monday morning – I guess it was Llew saying LO was now 2300! Got to Bull at 2255, where the extension was only until 2300!

Lessons Learned

• make sure you plot the tide offset the correct way
• There is no contact with Holyhead within a couple of mile of the north of Anglesey
• Get some walking shoes on the boat
• Ask someone reliable for the last orders time
• Tidal flow towards Puffin greater than atlas predicts