Across the Irish Sea to Douglas

It was a really wild and wooly night at Brow Foot Farm as the winds were really strong and the rain quite heavy. I kept waking up as the van rocked and rolled and listened to the roar of the rain pelting the roof just above my head. We slept in rather as a result and when we woke the sun was shining and it was a glorious day. I emptied the loo again and the grey tank and then topped up the fresh water tank. I had no idea what services were available in Douglas where we planned to stop for a couple of nights and I wanted Bertie to be ready for several days without needing anything.

We left the campsite at 10:40 and rumbled gently down the narrow lanes to the join the A6 near Carnforth. It is not far to the ferry port so we have a few hours in hand before we plan to check in at 1pm. My plan was to folow the coast road through Morecambe as we have never been here before. There is also the attraction of a Lidl and cheap fuel at Asda! We found a great parking spot right beside the sea wall on the North Promenade for lunch although the strong wind made for quite brief photographic sallies!

After lunch we fueled up at Asda and stocked up with goodies at Lidl there being no such emporium on the Island. We arrived at rhe ferry port just before 1pm and well before the 1:30 deadline. Check in was easy and straightforward and we parked in the queue and then we waited and waited. Just before 2:15 we were called forward to load (the boat was supposed to sail at 2:15) and drove slowly on to the ramp and then up a very narrow and very steep ramp to the upper vehicle deck and out on the open air section at the stern. This was e cellent news as I felt we were safe to leave the gas on and the fridge running.

We finally set off at 2:40. The delay was due to the backlog from the cancellation of last nights ferry and problems getting on to the berth earlier. The wind remained quite strong but Ben-my-Chree took it in her stride and arrived Douglas in just under 4hours as planned. The arrival into port is quite interesting as they turn the ferry right around within the harbour and operation made more difficult by the low tide in this case.

The light was failing as we drove off the boat and headed up through Douglas to Nobles Park but we found our way albeit by a round about route! We spotted a group of motorhomes there bfore us and we slotted in close by them since we moho types like to stick together. We later realised we had parked amongst the stored vans and not the main aire – we thought they were all a bit quiet!

A quick call to my nephew Chris who lives a few streets away and he nipped up in the car to collect us to save us the walk in the rain. We spent a lovely couple of hours with Chris and his partner Shardean discussing the final details for the surprise dinner party tomorrow night for my sister and brother in law’s golden wedding. The weather looked fine as we said goodbye and we insisted we need some exercise and wanted to walk back to Bertie. It was a good walk back up the hill but we were quite wet by the time we got back though!

Mileage when we stopped	131527kms
Mileage when we started	131487kms
Mileage so far this trip	40kms
Nights in Bertie so far	98