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| Abercorn
basin from the Titanic building |
We took a day off and visited the Titanic exhibition in the
Titanic Quarter, Belfast (Mark says “it’s was a rubbish boat as it sank”) but
we can highly recommend a visit to everyone. We wished, afterwards, we had taken
the boat into the Abercorn basin which is right next to the exhibition rather
than taking the train in. The pontoons were half empty and it would have been
exciting to take Ty Mor into a city. Maybe next time!
 |
| The
Nomadic - Titanic’s tender |
The next day the plan was too get up early and catch the
east going tide through the Copeland channel by 0700. This meant leaving the
pontoon by 0600. We decided to set our route to Ardglass marina but, if the
conditions looked good once we had rounded the Copelands we still had the
option of sailing straight for Peel and miss out Ardglass altogether.
This is exactly what happened. Once we had safely negotiated
the channel through the Copeland Islands and after achieving 9.8 knots speed
over ground with much of the speed being attributable to the tide, it became
clear that a run over to Peel was completely possible. We had some good winds
but ended up motor sailing just to keep the speed up.
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| Another
picture of Nomadic |
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| Anybody
have any idea what this is, we had to ask! |
 |
| Here's a clue |
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| Abercorn basin pontoons |
Passing several groups of boats, we started to wonder what
was happening and listened to the communications - one of the large vessels had
its ground tackle caught under water. The other vessel seemed to be some sort
of fisheries patrol boat and was standing by.
 |
| Early
morning light in Belfast Lough |
We approached another group of vessels who were all trawling
and remembered that we were in the middle of herring season on the Isle of Man.
There again a fisheries patrol vessel seemed to be keeping an eye on
proceedings and approaching them one by one.
We radioed Peel harbour asking for the next bridge swing and
he instructed us to proceed in towards the harbour. The wind and choppy sea
outside suddenly dropped off as we rounded into the outer harbour
and made our way to the narrow inner harbour entrance. The harbour master gave
us instructions to tie up against another boat just inside the entrance and it
turned out to be another Moody 38. It later transpired that the boat was a
renamed (to Bluette) Choke Dee. The very boat we viewed in Southampton and made
an offer on. She looked good.
 |
| Ballyholme
bay again |
Then bad luck hit us or rather a Viking boat. We were tied
up tight unable to move and a motor boat, which had been tasked to move 3
Viking longboats from the inner harbour to the outer harbour in readiness for a
charity event, motored by with the 3 Viking vessel in tow.
 |
| Copeland
islands |
As the motor boat passed through the harbour gates the 2
guys lost control of the 3 boats and the wind blew the vessels in our
direction. The last boat came sliding towards us and the extended stern hit
firstly our outboard, then the GPS antennae, then the horseshoe lifebuoy. I had
been filming the Viking boats and caught the whole thing on camera. In the next
few seconds the longship also took a chunk out of the concrete harbour wall and
took down a light on a scaffolding pole in the outer harbour. Loads of damage.
 |
| Isle of man getting closer |
The harbour master assessed our damage and called Nigel the
event organiser who also came to look at the damage and kindly offered to pay
for any replacement kit.
We moved Ty Mor in some tricky high winds round onto a
pontoon and found Simon and Janet again. The Westerly convention was starting
to amass and there was very little room in the harbour. We met back up with
Kyla and John and met some other Westerly owners, some of which were friends of
Simon and Janet. Peel harbour was a very social place and it was difficult to
wander down the pontoon without speaking to people. Just our sort of place and
quite different to the unfriendly bigger marinas like Troon or Bangor.
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