drewstwos
Well-Known Member
Hi All
Gather round and let me tell you a tale of a very interesting and somewhat exciting trip from Port St Mary to Peel.
We, that is Neddie Seagoon and I had planned to do the trip a few days earlier to move Ameera from her half tide mooring at PSM to a pontoon berth at Peel. The day was fixed as this was the only free day Neddie had,
The weather forecast was said to be very good for several days up to and beyond the day in question. However the day before the trip was foggy Yes, not nice at all. But nil desperandum etc, The morning of the trip was still very foggy so I thought, OOPS!!. But off we went to PSM and sure enough viz was minimal. But being made of tough stuff we loaded up, the baggage containing not one but two laptops with assorted chartplotters and a mobile phone similarly loaded. I was sure we could cope. There was not a breath of wind.
We motored serenely out to sea. As we passed the outer harbour wall Neddie said that he had to attend to various things below.Viz was about 50 yards (Metres for those who are Imperial challenged) so in a trice we were in the proverbial soup.
Now this is where my plan kicked in. In my youth I had had to do passage planning the hard way so I reckoned that dead reckoning without a plotter I would do the following. First motor out heading south for 5 minutes. to take us off the coast turn to SW to run parallel to the coast for 20 minutes and as the tides were on the neaps and getting close to high water there would be little in any effect. This should put us off Spanish Head comfortably close to the entrance to the Calf Sound.
In practice I was rather pleased with myself because when I fired up the laptop we were exactly where I thought we should be. Using this we closed to the Sound and shortly Kitterland loomed up and then the Passage Marker.
On the other side the viz improved a bit, and we were able to make a heading NE up the coast with various glimpses of that from time to time. until we sighted Peel Castle..
Bradda Head and Port Erin zoomed
As we turned into the harbour the fog drifted away and we were in hot and bright sunshine. which of course is Sods Law. Motored on into the marina and found the right berth which again being Sods Law was occupied, and so onto the alternative.
Taken all round it was an interesting and instructive trip, but without modern technology I for one would not have ventured out of the harbour.
Of course as I write this the sun is shining and not a wisp of fog in sight, but it won't last.
Lastly, in case you are wondering, the 3 by 4 in the picture is one of Ameeras legs. They were the basis for another earlier story on this forum.
Happy boating
Drew.
Gather round and let me tell you a tale of a very interesting and somewhat exciting trip from Port St Mary to Peel.
We, that is Neddie Seagoon and I had planned to do the trip a few days earlier to move Ameera from her half tide mooring at PSM to a pontoon berth at Peel. The day was fixed as this was the only free day Neddie had,
The weather forecast was said to be very good for several days up to and beyond the day in question. However the day before the trip was foggy Yes, not nice at all. But nil desperandum etc, The morning of the trip was still very foggy so I thought, OOPS!!. But off we went to PSM and sure enough viz was minimal. But being made of tough stuff we loaded up, the baggage containing not one but two laptops with assorted chartplotters and a mobile phone similarly loaded. I was sure we could cope. There was not a breath of wind.
We motored serenely out to sea. As we passed the outer harbour wall Neddie said that he had to attend to various things below.Viz was about 50 yards (Metres for those who are Imperial challenged) so in a trice we were in the proverbial soup.
Now this is where my plan kicked in. In my youth I had had to do passage planning the hard way so I reckoned that dead reckoning without a plotter I would do the following. First motor out heading south for 5 minutes. to take us off the coast turn to SW to run parallel to the coast for 20 minutes and as the tides were on the neaps and getting close to high water there would be little in any effect. This should put us off Spanish Head comfortably close to the entrance to the Calf Sound.
In practice I was rather pleased with myself because when I fired up the laptop we were exactly where I thought we should be. Using this we closed to the Sound and shortly Kitterland loomed up and then the Passage Marker.
On the other side the viz improved a bit, and we were able to make a heading NE up the coast with various glimpses of that from time to time. until we sighted Peel Castle..
Bradda Head and Port Erin zoomed
As we turned into the harbour the fog drifted away and we were in hot and bright sunshine. which of course is Sods Law. Motored on into the marina and found the right berth which again being Sods Law was occupied, and so onto the alternative.
Taken all round it was an interesting and instructive trip, but without modern technology I for one would not have ventured out of the harbour.
Of course as I write this the sun is shining and not a wisp of fog in sight, but it won't last.
Lastly, in case you are wondering, the 3 by 4 in the picture is one of Ameeras legs. They were the basis for another earlier story on this forum.
Happy boating
Drew.
