Irene booked us on to a tall ship on Sunday morning and despite having to rush to escape breakfast at work, it was an enjoyable, leisurely drive along the Old Castletown Road to Port St. Mary and you'd hardly have known that the TT was here.
There was a decent breeze and I had visions of us flying across the water like a modern day Cutty Sark but they only actually used the fore sail and the top sail, so it was more of a relaxing cruise instead of what I'd envisaged yet none the worse for it.
The crew was a mixture of dutch and germans, the ship itself, The Antigua, being a converted whaler from the Netherlands and they encouraged the passengers to assist with ropes. Of course, I had a go but being a 10 stone racewalker wasn't exactly ideal and while the burly biker with the belly from Whitby was able to pull the sails aloft, I nearly ended up there with them.
The Manx weather was at its best and the sail along the coast down past The Chasms, Spanish Head, the Stack, through the passage between Chicken Rock Lighthouse and the Calf and then the return steam through the Sound showed the Island at its finest.
On our return, we collected the new grandson from Bushy's Tent, resisting the 'Take one, get another free' offer and went for a walk around the Quay and along the Promenade.
A brilliant day, though sadly followed by Monday which was beset by computer and plumbing problems, not to mention the sad death of another competitor and a visiting biker that really undid the 'feelgood' factor created by our 'Less than Mad Sunday.' But that's another 'blog' for another day;-)
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