More Manx touristy stuff

Friday was forecast, correctly, to be soggy and windy. That meant we could catch up on a little maintenance work (removed the belt covers on the main engine, checked the drive belts and tensioner, started cleaning up the grubby engine room) and also justify lunch out in a local pub that had free WIFI. We needed some internet access to do boring but critical things like banking, emails and to update this drivel of course. The lucky (?) pub was the Creek Inn, which had been recommended by the marina owner in Holyhead, some previous visitors and Pam the nice lady with the Seaward 35. How could we ignore all this advice…..

Well, they were all right. An extensive menu for a pub with good service and food (even fast WIFI too!) If in the area, visit Creek Inn website.

When the sun came out again, the next day, we decided to revisit the summit of Snaefell to get better views. This time it was a bus, bus, mountain railway trip. In case you think we were travelling in luxury, here is the inside of the smartest train carriage which had been refurbished recently with new timberwork but in the original style. The seats and backrests were the originals though, built in the days when ergonomic design was unheard of:

Heading up the mountain they stop briefly so you can take the regulation tourist picture of the Laxey Wheel (a waterwheel that used to pump water out of the nearby mine). Since they were kind enough to stop, we had to take the picture and inflict it upon you:

En route, you get lovely views across the hills and out to sea:

The train has one stop at the Bungalow station, which is alongside the TT course (see our last post for the folks who don’t know about the TT races). We thought this painting on the side of a building was pretty impressive and captured the spirit of the TT:

On the way back, we walked down to the harbour area then took an electric tram and a horse drawn tram back to Douglas. The crew insisted on a picture of the horse so here it is:

Douglas is very unlike Bangor (the Northern Ireland one that is). If you remember, Bangor had lots and lots of clocks that all showed a different but equally wrong time. Douglas has several clocks that all seem to work and get looked after including this which was a celebration of Queen Victoria’s jubilee (i.e. pretty old):

Perhaps they are more punctual here or they just have more cash to dispose of. The truth is probably that both these thoughts are valid. Douglas is being tidied up a lot but they didn't clean the goo from the refuge tower just off the harbour entrance:

The tower is built on a rock outcrop that is close to the harbour and apparently in days of old, many ships were wrecked on the rock in storms whilst attempting to get shelter in the harbour. The cute “mini castle” was built to give shipwrecked mariners a refuge spot until they could be rescued!

We did drive part of the TT course, but in a local bus. The crash barriers were still out, and the race signs too. One bus driver was clearly taking part in the race – their new Mercedes single deck buses corner pretty well – better than the passengers in fact.

Castletown is stunning. The ancient capital of the island, it has a little drying harbour like many on the island and of course, the medieval Rushen castle. Of course, they are cheek by jowl so the overall impression is one of a model village:

Castletown also look after their clock towers so they tell the right time. Continuing the emerging “old lifeboat” theme that seems to be a talking point in this otherwise rather pointless blog, we found that some are less lucky than others. This old girl seems to have fallen on hard times, left on a drying berth against the quay wall in Castletown and looking like she needs lots of TLC:

If the lifebelt is to be believed, she is from Amlwch (See the earlier Anglesey posts). Shame that she seems to have come to the Isle of Man to slowly die.

Another “must see” place is Port St Mary. Yet another quaint little harbour area, expansive bay and great walks around them both:

 

All in all, you have probably guessed that we like the IoM a lot. The question is, when to leave? Well, as there seems to be 0.0 metres under our keel at high water on the neap tide, we ought to wait a couple of days to get a little more clearance before we try to depart the harbour. As the entrance seems shallower than our berth, we could easily end up in mid harbour stuck in the mud for a few days. That would not be a big issue as the boat will happily sit with her keel a couple of inches in the mud. It would mean going ashore by dinghy of course and there would be no need to anchor at all. However, we would look a little strange and maybe get in the way of smaller yachts which can still get in and out during the neap tides. So, on balance, we will stay on the berth until the high tides are a little “higher” before we leave.

We wondered if they hadn’t dredged the harbour so they could trap the bigger boats until the spring tides and hence get more mooring money from them. Then we heard that the harbour folks had bought a dredger earlier this year to sort out the silt from the winter storms. However, they could only use it briefly because initially there wasn’t enough pipework, then the pump wasn’t powerful enough, then a brought in grab dredger wasn’t meaty enough to disturb the very solid silt. This was a government move to avoid using a contractor who was going to complete the work in less than a month.

By the time they got their brand new dredger sort of working, another government department didn’t want the breeding habitat for fish to be disturbed until the winter. So, the nice new dredger is laid up for several months and parts of the harbour are pretty much unusable. Sounds like the UK’s local government approach has arrived here too…..

We see that there are some strong winds forecast until Thursday afternoon that would be right on the nose for a run up to Scotland. The tide heights and weather look good for Thursday pm / Friday though so we might well leave this great spot at the end of the week. You can only consume so many Coffee Republic chocolate twists in one week and we have already exceeded the sensible quota by far.  Might have to revisit the Creek Inn though for some more WIFI…. Tough life, isn’t it?

In the meanwhile, enjoy these pictures showing the bow of a Castletown yacht. The owner seems to like 6 of the 7 dwarfs, even if they have been a little scratched by some dodgy mooring techniques:

Wonder what the other one did to upset them?