Not a nice beam reach

 We only had 33nm to go to reach Peel. Julian checked the flap gate/bridge opening times there and told me they opened at 17:15. This did not seem quite right as high water was at 20:21, and when he checked again the opening time was 18:52. He was not having a good day.

We left Ardglass at 09:05, giving ourselves plenty of time so we could sail, and raised the main sail as soon as we were clear of the coast. The swell was not too bad, and the wind was light as we set off on a broad reach. I was helming, and soon realised that this was not going to take us to Peel; we would end up south of the Calf of Man. Trying to sail our course to Peel brought us very close to the gybe, and the swell was rolling us uncomfortably. I checked on our newly installed wind vane, and the forecast south westerly was much closer to a pure westerly.

Julian got depressed. We hoped that once we cleared the land the wind might have more south in it, but this was not to be. It also went lighter. A light wind, dead astern, meant another day with the engine on. We could not even rig George because of the swell.

We gave up on trying to use the main sail at 13:30, and got it down. The wind strengthened slightly at 15:00, not enough to worry about raising the main, but we flew the jib and turned the engine off for a quiet half hour sailing at 2.5 knots.

The Isle of Man got closer, and colours began to appear. The overcast sky grew brighter, and we started to see blue. Julian’s mood improved, and get even better when the wind came in from the south. The main went up, and by 16:45 we were sailing on that longed for beam reach. Unfortunately we were less than 4 miles from Peel.

Finally sailing towards Peel

The main sail steadied Robinetta’s motion, and we were having a lovely sail. All the waiting buoys in Peel harbour were full, so we decided to continue sailing in the bay. Then we saw the pot markers. They filled the sheltered area of the bay north of the waiting buoys.

We gybed away, heading out past the breakwater again to get the main sail down in the bumpy water outside the bay.

One of the yachts waiting on the buoys was Wren, another gaffer we had seen in Port Dinorwic. They beckoned us over to moor alongside and share their buoy, which was a much simpler option that anchoring. I approached very slowly, worried about clashing bowsprits, but they did not touch, and we spent the next 50 minutes chatting to our fellow gaffers, and tidying up our sail stow.

I had phoned Peel soon after we left Ardglass, so they were expecting us, and now I phoned them again to say we were waiting. Peel harbour is controlled from Douglas after 17:00, and I was surprised to be told to approach the bridge at 18:45, when it was only due to open at 18:52, but I did as I was told. I would see the flap gate was still up, so turned away back into the bay.

All in all Robinetta approached the entrance to the harbour three times before we actually got a green light to proceed into the harbour. Once inside we found a nice big Norwegian flagged yacht with fenders all ready for rafting, so we went alongside and moored up. The engine went off again at 19:05. We had arrived.

We will be staying in Peel for over a week, first for the Sea Fest, and then for Yn Chruinnaght, the pan Celtic gathering.