Storm Bound In Peel

After our long trip from Liverpool Julian and I were glad of a day or two in port, even if it was because we were storm bound. Unfortunately it rained, and rained, and rained, starting from about 5 in the morning on Monday. We had not put the cockpit cover on, and regretted it as the cabin began to leak. I crawled out of bed as soon as I was awake enough, got all dressed up in my oilies, and got the covers over.

Julian had connected shore power on Sunday evening, so I unwrapped the little electric heater, and the cabin began to dry out. I left Julian putting the cabin into day mode, and headed for the shore heads. Stupidly I took off my waterproof trousers before leaving Robinetta and regretted it immediately as the strong wind drove the rain and my trousers were soaked in a minute.

The door code the harbour master had given me, which worked yesterday, did not work this morning, and it would not work on the pontoon security gate either. However there was a phone, labelled 24hr Harbour master, so I used it and got the Douglas Harbour master, who gave me the new code.

There is a shed near the harbour, labelled HMS Chandlers, but the doors were closed, however walking along towards the pub where we ate last night I saw someone going through a door labelled Ship to Shore. It had looked like a false door, but was obviously in use, so I followed them in anRobinettad found a good commercial/fisherman's chandlers. They had a good selection of bilge pumps, and when I asked about sail mending I was given the contact details for a lady in Port Erin.

The next task of the day was pumping out the bilges and moping them as dry as possible so Julian could get a good look and decide if we needed a new pump or just a repair. The answer was a new pump, so he headed for the chandlers in the driving rain and bought one. They only had Rule brand ones, while the broken one was Whale, but Robinetta had a Rule when we bought her, and the screw holes only needed a little cleaning out to be perfectly usable. Fitting this new pump was much easier than the last one!

Julian then moved on to making a new tiller pilot mount, while I took the stern light apart. The electrical connection had looked a bit dodgy, and on opening it up I was amazed it had worked at all. After reconnecting the wires I made a grommet with self amalgamating tape to take the strain off the electrical connections.  They were both jobs we could do in the cabin, in the dry.

The rain gave way to drizzle as the afternoon wore on, and in the evening we headed to the Creek Inn to celebrate Julian's birthday without putting full waterproofs on first.

Tuesday saw us taking off the cockpit cover on a grey but dry morning, then taking the sail off and bagging it to take to Port Erin. The taxi took us though thick fog, but Port Erin itself was clear at sea level. Jenny at 7Wave soon had a patch sewn over the rip, and we caught a steam train to Douglas for the afternoon. The sky brightened up as we travelled and by the time we reached the terminus the weather was beautiful.

Port Erin in the murk

There was an amateur production of The Producers on at the Gaiety Theatre in the evening, so we bought tickets, and the box office looked after the sail for us while went to the museum and had a walk in the sunshine.

The bus back to Peel at 23:07 was surprisingly full. We ended the day back on Robinetta at Midnight, having successfully completed all the essential maintenance tasks needed before setting off again.