12.02.09
Summer trip - Fleetwood to Largs via Isle of Man, June 2008.
I don’t know how the logic worked in our thinking but we decided to take Mercy Jane to Largs to carry out a complete strip and re-varnish of all external brightwork-and there is a lot of it. We thought that we could take a full week off work and take an extra hand with us and just get stuck in and get it completed in the week. We could have done the same thing in Fleetwood - its just not the same.
We decided to go via Peel on the Isle of Man then to Portpatrick, Campbelltown, and finally Largs and we weren’t in any particular rush. Our regular crew for these trips normally is John Hindle and Steve Capstick but unfortunately due to work pressures Steve couldn’t go (he’s a farmer) so it was just the three of us.
We left Fleetwood in bright sunshine and headed for the south end of Isle of Man. The weather deteriorated a little on our way over and it turned into a bit of a bumpy ride forcing us to seek some shelter in Castletown harbour awaiting the tide to take us through Calf Sound. I went below for a sleep and the next thing I knew we were away again and heading for Peel, Graham had sneaked away at first light leaving both John and me to sleep on. I got up but left John to sleep on.
We arrived in Peel about 7am, John still fast asleep, and thought it would be good fun to leave him there and go and find some breakfast, which we did at the top end of Peel in a little cafe we use occasionally. We arrived back at the boat to find that John was still asleep so cast off very quietly heading for Portpatrick with huge grins on our faces. John did eventually get up and looked a little miffed that he had not only missed breakfast but Peel altogether.
The wind was just right for us to sail freely to Portpatrick and we enjoyed the experience, sailing along in warm sunshine getting there in what appeared to be in no time.
We were happy to berth snuggly in the harbour which is very protected and once we had tidied up the boat went to the local pub for a few well earned beers and some hearty food.
The next day we awoke to another warm sunny day but had to wait for the tide at midday before we could get away, we were actually touching the bottom, just. Graham went on a scavenging trip around the harbour and came back with a bagfull of lobsters, ready boiled for us to have for tea. We entually got away heading for Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre. We had a really good sail with the wind more or less on the beam making a good 6 knots in 12-15 knots of wind heading in the right direction. We had ‘Bob’ the autohelm in control allowing us to relax on deck taking in the views of Ailsa Craig on the Starboard side.
We got in to Campeltown in daylight and having found a good berth on the main pontoon headed for the bright lights of the town. A very pleasant evening was had in wandering aound the town visiting quite a few pubs and savouring several excellent pints of beer.
Next day we awoke to a bright sunny day and after a bit of boat manoevering headed out and made for Rothsea, again we had superb sailing in warm sunshine with the mountains on Arran very clear and dominating the scenery. Arrived at Rothsea to find the harbour completely full so picked up a local mooring buoy, went ashore in the dinghy and headed for the bright lights once more.
I think we found the liveliest pub that night, live music which got everybodies feet tapping, the musician played non stop for at least 4 hours including bag pipes. We got involved in a bit of dancing with the locals whilst John did a good job of keeping the beer flowing all night.
It was a good job that John doesn’t partake in the odd pint, he was sober enough to herd us back to the dinghy and get us back safely on board. (If its ever possible to herd Graham anywhere after he’s had a few pints)
We were up bright and early next day and managed to get Mercy Jane the short trip across to Largs where we berthed up ready for the work to begin.
All in all we’d had a really memorable trip, in good weather and lots of good sailing.
Rhys
