We were in at Port St Mary and I was so thankful to be tied up to the harbour wall. As we sorted out the lines, we invited the helmsman and his son from the diving charter boat onto Salty Lass. His son thought that Salty Lass, was great and kept on explaining from below.
"Its got a bedroom", "There is a cooker". Clearly the diving charter boat, did not have such luxuries.
Once they had left, Beverley went off to explore the shops while I starting putting equipment away. One of the items that needed to go away was our straps. These are an absolute must have when you are in roly seas like we were. We have hard points in the cockpit and lifelines going down the boat, so that you have an attachment to the boat. You must hold on as well, when you go forward, but it is reassuring to have the additional life line.
Once I got all the equipment away, I adjusted the riser. When you are tied up to a harbour wall, a gentleman in Peel told us of a handy trick of where you can make your own riser out of a rope tied to the ladder. The one thing that you need to make sure is that somebody stays on the boat, while the tide drops. In Port St Mary, there was a 5meter tide and we had come in with two meters of tide still to go. So in between tiding I kept on having to adjust the riser. If Beverley and I had left the boat together, I can imagine Salty Lass the central cleat being ripped out, or in one case that I know of they came back to find the yacht suspended 2m above the sea. They had to cut the lines as the cleats were beginning to creak.
When Beverley came back after a fruitless search, even the Good Luck cafe had been closed. Beverley reflected on the things we did right and the things we did wrong
- For the area around Chicken Rock the locals say add one or two forces to the wind forecast
- When the wind direction is from the South West, then the calf of sound is a safer option as the Calf of Man protects you from that wind direction
- The wind forecast was from the North West, however once we realised that the wind would be coming from the South West, we would have the wind going against tide, which means that the safer option would be to turn back
- In and around Chicken Rock, the map shows various overflows, which means that waves can come from any direction
For my part, I'm glad that I was in contact with the coastguard, and one of the things that will be going onto Salty Lass as part of the refit is an AIS system.
As Beverley had no luck in the local shops, we just bought some food from the local supermarket cooked tea and planned our passage home.
The next day was a great day and we headed back to Liverpool. We have enjoyed our Irish Sea adventures, but it is now time to get Salty Lass ready for next year.
