Bangor NI to Peel IOM

Mark Rosenthal

HWD 07:15 & 19:41 Tide runs south from 6 hrs before HWD Peel approx 48Nm Plan to set off around 12:00 with winds gradually forecast to increase mid morning and to take advantage of the tide going south. We will need to stay north of the direct line to Peel as the winds in the centre of the channel are shown to be too light for sailing Concern over visitor mooring at Peel being exposed to Northerly winds overnight. Shopping in Asda. Water tank filled. Fuel up with £37.25 @ 1.56 at 12:10 = 23.8ltr. Interestingly Bangor Marina do offer Camping Gaz in the small bottles we use, for future reference. We motored out from the fuel berth and raised the main leaving the job until we had gone round the headland. With a 12kt wind we sailed on a beat to the cardinal buoy, shutting down the engine. There were several sailing boats following us down from further up Belfast Lough and as we turned into the Donaghadee Sound the wind died as we unfurled the code 0, switched to the spinnaker and really just drifted down on the tide through the channel. Once we got the spinnaker sorted we sailed for a while testing our spinnaker knowledge in V light winds.. When we came to try and drop the spinnaker it was clear that there was a problem with the halyard, As we weren’t able to resolve this from the deck Luke engaged on a mast climb, reporting back that there was a knot in the halyard around 300mm from the head shackle. Once cleared we recovered Luke and the spinnaker and continued with a mixture of the code 0 and the motor. 16:33 wind was dying so attempted to start the engine, loud noise and engine stalled. Tried again and saw a big plastic bag come off under the stern. Still not operating so started in neutral and selected reverse then forward. Now OK. For a short period the winds increased and we deployed the code 0 again, 10 minutes later we had to give up and go with the motor. 17:45 still motoring as winds now less than 4kt. A significant occluded front is following us while we are currently in beautiful sunshine so now we must prepare for the next wet and windy period of this crossing to Peel. Atmospheric pressure is at 1006 at 17:50 A fishing vessel was due to cross exactly on our course so I called them up and informed them we would sail to their stern so I asked how long their nets were, approx 50m, however they turned and didn’t get in our way too much. We managed to avoid the rain once again during the late afternoon as we sailed towards Peel arriving at around 21:20 picking up one of the visitor moorings.