Therefore, with a sunny day with light breezes in the offing, on Sunday, I was charged with the task of making this happen.
Initially, it looked like I might fail as Manx Sea Quest is currently out of action, the Karina finished for a couple of weeks on Saturday but by courtesy of Mr Google, I chanced upon Mike Keggen who runs http://www.isleofmandivingholidays.com but they had nothing going out on the Sunday afternoon and were booked up in the morning.
However, he did say that if they had other enquiries, he would give me a ring and that there was a minimum of six people at £20 or £120 to book the boat.
A couple of text messages later, I had gathered another 4 hardy souls and the trip was on! What I didn't realise at the time was that they have a brand new boat, The Kirree Varrey which takes up to 12 passengers so we could have have made things even more economical.
In the past, I have always sailed from Port Erin but Keggen operates from Port St. Mary and he rang me in advance to inform me that he was bringing our time forward due to the fast ebbing low tide caused by the Blood Moon.
We were underway before 2pm and the plan was to drop us at South Harbour which was built to serve the lighthouses and we were marooned at about 2:10pm to survive with out any aid until our proposed rescue at 4:30pm. It is worth noting that there are no toilets, drinking water or retail outlets and we were unable to locate the ATM and the Costa Coffee.
I always thought that it was named after the part of the leg but in fact the name Calf of Man(Yn Cholloo in Manx) is derived from the Norse Kalfr which means a small Island adjoining a larger one and it was bought for the National Trust (which later became Manx National Trust and now Manx National Heritage) in 1939 by an Englishman, Mr F J Dickens and became a bird sanctuary and observatory in 1959.
There are strict rules for visitors who must remove their own litter and I'm pleased to say that I saw no rubbish whatsoever while we were there.
The two original lighthouses were built by Robert Stevenson in 1818 but these were replaced by the building on Chicken Rock in 1878 which must have been an incredible feat of construction as even on the mild days such as when we visited, it looks an inhospitable place.
In 1968, a 4th one was built, though it is by far the ugliest building of the four and it was operationally short lived when the Chicken Rock was reinstated as the sole light when it became automated in 1995.
In fair weather it is a beautiful, peaceful place despite the procession of aircraft overhead on the approach to land at Ronaldsway into the less prevalent northerly breeze.
Although there is a path around the Island, the East Coast part of it is less well formed and as we were being picked up at Cow Harbour (thus named because they used to swim the cattle across the Sound to take them to market,) we opted to visit the lighthouse side and then follow the main 'drag' past the only inhabited building, where the estate warden and the ornithologist live between March and November.
We passed rather than scaled the highest point on the West coast which is 415 feet (128m) above sea level and managed to reach the North of the Island without major incident.
En route we saw a hen harrier which was too quick even for my twitcher chum, Paul to capture on film and also a sparrow hawk, a gannet, some cormorants and the usual collection of various gulls and rooks.
Most Islanders are used to seeing seals but at this time of year, when the water is probably at its warmest, they are having their pups and I have never witnessed so many of them and they were very vocal.
We had passed the ornithologist and exchanged greetings earlier in the day but the estate warden caught up with us at this point for a chat. His job for the day was a butterfly survey and he turned out to be a very affable chap, though for us it was hard to contemplate the level of isolation that he and his colleague (from Barcelona) live in, though they are connected by internet these days.
One of my friends asked how often they made it to the mainland but the only times he left were take his two weeks of holidays at his native West Country (GB.)
Our rescuers arrived just after the appointed time and we enjoyed the return sail and the subsequent attempts to dislodge a yacht which had been caught out on the rocks by the more than usual lack of sea.
A brilliant day, rounded off with a nice dinner in the Shore on Gansey Bay.
Thank you to Marie & Paul Jackson, Karen Chiarello & Robert Currey for joining us. Mushroom and Sparrowhawk photographs by Paul Jackson Post Script: We had guests that went to the Calf Sound yesterday and saw dolphins! Just our luck to miss them
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