Moving out of the harbour

Peel’s limited tidal access meant we had to either get up in the small hours of Monday morning, or leave on Sunday afternoon and go on to a waiting buoy in the harbour. We wanted to get fuel, which was available through a hose just beyond the flap gate and bridge, and we decided it would be easier to do this in daylight. There was no rush through, the flap gate did not close until 5pm, so we could stay and listen to music, have lunch, and watch the carnival procession before we left.

With the procession over, we headed back to Robinetta. We had already moved Worm so the motor boat moored beside us could get out as soon as the flap gate opened, so there was little to do. We called up the harbour master, who told us the next bridge lift was at 15:00. We had less than five minutes to warm up the engine, cast off, and head for the bridge.

We made it, only to be told that there was a yacht already on the fuel dock. This was not really a problem, as we just moored up ahead of him and waited for him to finish and move clear. Then Julian pulled us forward on ropes, and sent down the fuel hose.

I had had to guess how much fuel we would need, as the system worked with a pre-payment fob. We had motored for 40 hours since we last filled up, and after dipping the tanks I had through we had room for 13 litres in each tank, plus 15 into our spare cans, so I bought 40 litres. In reality I could only squeeze in 35 litres…

Julian took the fob back to the harbour master, then cast off our mooring ropes and rejoined me on Robinetta.

There were two free waiting buoys, with the 2 most sheltered already taken. Those yachts were lying inshore of the buoys, but the pick up lines were training off shore. We had to go the “wrong” side of the buoy so Julian could reach the line and bring it on board, then try and manoeuvre Robinetta to lie to the buoy the same way as the others. Words were exchanged.

We ate a light dinner on board, and planned our next day’s passage. We had hoped to anchor at Whithorn on Monday evening, explore it on Tuesday, then sail to Whitehaven on Wednesday, but the forecast winds to the east of the Isle of Man for Tuesday and Wednesday meant that we should head straight to Whitehaven. The best time to leave to get round the Point of Ayr before the overfalls began was 06:00. We set the alarm for 05:30, and turned in for an early night.