Julian Megson Ocean Ventures

I recently got back from a Sail over to the Isle of Man. I had a few days off work and I thought I would cruise around the Irish Sea – just me and my boat.

The plan was to sail to the Isle of Man then over to Ireland the next day. Although the Isle of Man is less than 60 miles away, it did feel like I was going on a proper little adventure. Ragamuffin is an old girl and not terribly quick so although I wasn’t going very far in miles, I knew with the forecast of light winds it was probably going to take a long time to get there.

It was a good start. Half an hour into the journey I was greeted by 2 dolphins. It was the first time I’ve ever seen them locally – a good omen I thought. There was just about enough wind to sail and I soon got into the routine of single handed sailing.

About halfway the weather forecast came over the VHF for the following day. The wind forecast had been upgraded to gale force. This was a bit of a blow because it could scupper my sail to Ireland. It’s one thing to get caught out in such conditions but to set off knowing it’s going to get nasty, in a small boat that was not designed for such weather, is pretty stupid. 11 hours later at around Midnight, I finally docked at Douglas Marina and tucked myself into my sleeping bag.

The next day was grey and wet. Not much sign of the gales either. In fact for a while I was tempted to try and hit the next tide and make a dash for Ireland – but I thought better of it. With hindsight I wish I had. The wind never did pick up and I was sat like a lemon all day, in my cabin waiting for it to stop raining. I eventually ventured out for a soggy walk around town and decided to pick up some sausages and bacon to help moral (I usually just eat the freeze dried stuff when sailing).

That evening, I decided to do a few checks on the boat for something to do. And believe it or not I was delighted to see that tr-colour NAV light on top of the mast was not working – great, a job to occupy my mind tomorrow!

I awoke the next morning with the wind howling through the rigging – the gales had finally arrived which meant I wasn’t going anywhere. So I took my time getting up and fried up some smoked bacon – that did the trick.  I had to think about what I was going to do next if the winds calmed down later. If I could make the morning tide I would head out for Ireland, but if I could only make the 2nd tide at around midnight I would head back home – having lost 2 days and I was running out of time. The forecast came through and the gales were to persist until that evening. That’s it, I was staying put.

I did a bit of reading, then decided to fix the tri-colour light. Hoping not to have to go up the mast, I took my volt meter and set about finding the fault. It turned out to be a dirty connection at the base of the mast. After the nav light was fixed I checked the rest of the lights – now the stern light wasn’t working! This was mad, they all worked when I set off.  I fixed the stern light and messed around for the rest of the day.

The forecast overnight was a north westerly force 4 – perfect. I would set off back to Fleetwood just before midnight.  I bagged a few hours sleep after dinner and set the alarm to wake me up an hour before I had to cast off. I ran the engine for a time to charge the batteries and did a final check on the boat. I could hardly believe it, the starboard nav light was out! In my frustration I thumped it with my fist – and as if by magic it lit up.

A few miles out of the marina the swell was still big from the gales, but the wind was but a whisper. Thinking that I was just being sheltered by the Isle of Man I motored on hoping the wind would pick up – it never really did. In fact what little wind there eventually dropped to zero. With a big swell and no wind, Ragamuffin wallowed around uncomfortably. The force of the wind in the sails steady’s a boat better than the engine.

It was a lovely clear night, the moon was just about full and the stars were clear. I love sailing at night. As dawn broke I was feeling pretty tired so I took short sleeps of about 15 minutes each time.  In between I would poke my head out of the cabin and make sure I wasn’t going to hit anything before taking another nap. It’s amazing how you can train yourself to turn sleep on and off like that.

I tied up at Fleetwood just before lunch. I was massively disapointed I couldn’t sail all the way back and had to use the engine – for a sailor, no wind is far worse than too much wind.  I don’t want to sound like a ‘glass half empty’ kind of a guy but although I enjoyed the sail, I didn’t get any proper sense of satisfaction. It was fun, but by no means a challenge. Ocean sailing and long haul passages is what I crave and what I continue to strive for.