Lines slipped at last

Finally on Thursday the moment came. We blearily got up at 2am and cast off from Fleetwood at 3.30, intending to head for Douglas on the Isle of Man, as a stepping stone to Ireland and then Scotland.

It was dark and chilly as Sirena IV glided out of the lock for a final time. There was no wind at all but we put our mainsail up anyway. We steered carefully through the giant wind farm that lay in our path, and took it in turns to helm through the day, one hour one and one hour off. 

Later in the day the wind became F1 to 2 southwesterly.It was unbelievably cold - both of us piled on every stitch of clothing until we looked like Michelin men.  Nic played at setting up the 'new' autohelm which entailed Lesley motoring very slowly in circles in 130 metres of Irish Sea. Any passing plane would have wondered what on earth we were doing. The setup worked brilliantly and we handed over to the autohelm for the first time. Then Nic had a brainwave. We would change our plan, and wouldn't stop at Douglas on the east side of the island, to go north from there round the infamous Point of Ayre, because northerly winds were forecast and that would be pretty nasty. Instead we would keep going down to the south of the island to the village of Port St Mary and pick up a buoy, then go to Peel on the west side as a jumping off point for Northern Ireland.

        

We arrived at Port St Mary in bright warm sunshine, 13 hours after leaving Fleetwod  and spent a happy evening planning the next leg.