We are very happy to have completed a significant passage of 280nm up the Irish Sea - it took us 43 hours, so involved two night watches where neither of us got a huge amount of sleep! However, we had lots of wind for fast sailing, though this kicked up some big waves (hence the lack of sleep). We decided to shorten our original plan a little and put into Peel on the west coast of the Isle of Man and we're glad we did, as it's been a fun place to stop. Watching the weather forecast, we're staying a second night here which has given us the chance to recover and also to fix a couple of minor boat issues.
There will be a video to share, once we've edited it and found some Wi-Fi to upload it but, in the meantime, here are a few photos:
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| Approaching Longships lighthouse off Land's End |
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| Passing close to Longships (on advisable in settled conditions) with Land's End in the background |
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| Rolling our way northwards up the Irish Sea with Constance the autopilot working hard |
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| Peel Castle and the entrance to the inner harbour |
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| The inner harbour used to dry out at low tide but the flap-gate now retains water for the marina. It opens for about 3 hours at high tide and the pedestrian bridge opens on demand for boats to enter or leave |
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| The harbour is shared by the busy fishing fleet and resident and visiting yachts in the marina |
Tomorrow we have a 50nm crossing to Carrickfergus which lies on the north side of Belfast Lough. We should be able to time it to benefit from 6 hours of favourable tide - the advantage of using Peel as a pit-stop - and the passage should take us less than 8 hours. Carrickfergus will be the last place with big supermarkets for the next couple of months; once into the Outer Hebrides, small Co-ops will be the best we'll get so we'll take the opportunity to stock up on essentials.
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