Having taken a day off to let the winds die down they didn’t, die down that is. The forecast was for W16kts gusting to 20kts but what we had for 7 hours was 20kts gusting 26kts. However, the motion of the boat was a little better with the swell hitting us beam on. But the waves were fairly big at 2-2.5m in quick succession. The 3rd mate wasn’t happy and I fully expected to find a black paw print when I opened my book that night.
As we approached the Isle of Man I decided to go through the narrow sound inside the Calf of Man. We had been through this on our way southbound but we had had the tide with us then and would have it against us this time. The other option was to go around but with the strong westerlies and tidal over falls it wouldn’t be comfortable. As we came into the sound I had forgotten how narrow it was, maybe 50-60m across. There were lots of eddies and the boat lost 4 knots as Sulaire inched through the sound. We finally emerged through into slacker water and the colour began to return to my knuckles as I turned the autopilot back on.
The wind was forecast to drop as we went up the west coast of Man but it didn’t and the seas began to get very confused as we approached South Stack. The 3rd mate’s eyes bore into me.
Rounding the breakwater at Peel just before 9pm came as a relief to all. I called the Harbour Master and he confirmed that the tidal flap gate would open in a few minutes and that we had the choice of 4 visitor berths dead ahead of us on Alpha pontoon upon entry.
With Sulaire secure, the crew headed ashore to stretch legs after our lengthy and tiring passage…back at the boat I was looking forward to reading a few pages of my book…or maybe not…
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