Round Britain for the RNLI Blog

Having spoken to Tony, the full-time mechanic at the Douglas Lifeboat Station, I can now modify my passage plan to take a more inside route up the coast of the island and around the northern tip. This should cut off quite a few miles from my original route and make the journey a little quicker too, not to mention more picturesque.

In Douglas I have not had internet access until today but even now I do not have a way to reply to email. So, if you have sent an email recently and expect a reply then please be patient until I get to bangor when I should have a better connection. Thanks.

I have now counted and banked the money collected yesterday outside Shopright, Douglas and it came to a whacking £450! That is in just 5 hours of just me standing outside the store.

Thank you so much to Shopright for allowing me to collect and to every one of the donators, some of which made a special journey to visit the store to see me, no matter how small or large your contribution was. This is a fantastic response from an island that clearly already does a huge amount for the RNLI so thank you once again.

Since arriving here in Douglas on the Isle of Man I have felt remarkably relaxed. The island has a secure feeling about it and everyone seems incredibly proud of their nation… and quite rightly so too. It is something to be proud of and I can see why many UK people move here.

Yesterday, I was allowed to collect outside the main supermarket, Shopright, and I have to say that I was gobsmacked the the public’s response. The RNLI was devised and started by William Hillary here on the Isle of Man and the people here are proud and keen to support the charity. I haven’t yet counted the money but it looks like in the 5hrs I may have collected over £300 for the RNLI. Fantastic and thank you to Shopright and the people of the Isle of Man.

This morning I had the chance to be interviewed by Stuart Peters of Manx radio for the Mandate AM show tomorrow.

Later today I am counting and banking the money collected at Conwy and yesterday and then I am due to visit the Douglas Lifeboat Station. More on this later.

The wind finally dropped at Conwy and the forecast looked promising for the next 24hrs and so I decided that although the trip was not going to be comfortable it would be safe and so I decided to go.

So, in sunshine and light winds, as usual, first stop was to the fuel pontoon and then on past the tidal gate and out into the river. It was clear as soon as got out to the fairway buoy that it wasn’t going to be a comfy crossing and soon I had spray over the roof of the cabin and I occasionally had to use the windscreen wiper. Just past the fairway buoy my first incident of the entire trip happened… the windscreen wiper came off the arm and the wiper then became completely unusable. This was not an encouraging start to what was going to be the most difficult leg of the event so far and clearly I had two choices… go back and cancel the trip for today or go out and fix it and then see if it is likely to be reliable enough to go today. I decided to go out on the basis that I had a jackstay and safety line and that after I had fixed it I still had the option to return if it still didn’t work. So, I continued a little further to get into deeper water so there was likely to be a bit less swell and then hooked on and went forward. After I had replaced the blade onto the arm I returned to the safety of the cabin and decided to give it a good workout before I decided to continue on. I left it on, turned it on and off etc and it held up and so onward I went. I replaced this blade prior to leaving Plymouth and I can only assume that it wasn’t fully on.

The trip was very lumpy. It was into a F4 northery with a 1-2m sea for the entire way and at times 9kts was too fast and never for the entire 5 hours was I able to sustain more than 14kts but I felt it was safe and the boat handled the sea well and I arrived safely in Douglas. In spite of that I will be looking for better conditions for the next leg to Bangor.

Visibility for the trip was just great. I could clearly see the Isle of Man a full 26 miles out and Douglas from 15 miles. It is a strange feeling to see your destination and know that you will still have 2-3 hours before arrival. The most striking thing i noticed was just how hilly the IoM is. A beautiful island.

On my arrival the flapgate entry into the marina was closed until later that evening and so I was directed to the visitors pontoon in the outer harbour where I rafted up to a fleet of yachts from Liverpool who had just raced across. I was met at the pontoon by my sponsor for the IoM leg, Steve Burrows and his wife Barbara. A welcome sight they were and they whisked me off to the ferry terminal to have a welcome cup of coffee. Steve has been great. He gave me a guided tour of the island and made sure I had every thing I needed, even helping with fuelling. Thank you to you both.

So, once on the pontoon berth in the marina it was clear that I was going to have a problem with getting connection to the internet. There was no marina wifi and although I had 3G coverage it was through Manx Pronto and as the Isle of Man is considered abroad as far as the telecoms companies are concerned it would be expensive to use the mobile here. So, my reports have been, and will be, a bit sporadic while here in Douglas. My apologies.

The weather looks like it is worsening now and so there is a good chance that I will be held up here for a few days again. This looks like a super place to be stuck for a while and while here I will try to see as much of this wonderful place as possible.

Having had a real long, hard look at the forecasts, and a good chat with one of the lifeboat crews, I have decided that there is a window for me but it is early tomorrow morning. The strongs winds that are forecast at the moment are not due to arrive the IoM until later in the afternoon and I could be there well before that. I am not going to make any assumptions right now and I will take another long look at the forecasts tomorrow and also see how it has been over night but at the moment an early departure may be possible.

If I do go then I would like you to remember that Douglas is on the sheltered side of the island at the moment and so I may not be able to make the final decision to leave the Isle of Man and head across the Irish Sea until I get around the top of the island. It will only be then that I can see what the sea is actually like and if I don’t like the look of it then I will simply return to Douglas.

More info tomorrow morning.

Paul will be on Manx Radio tomorrow (Tuesday) morning with Stuart Peters on "Mandate" between 0730 and 0830. You can listen live here http://www.manxradio.com/default.aspx, or "listen again" if you leave it until around 1pm to wait for the recording to be  posted.

I was up at 7.30 this morning after a not-very-good night’s sleep, but the migraine has gone, so that’s a result.

Andy and Matthew have started decorating and Ed and Steve have started hanging doors. The coffees and teas have done the first round and the fun begins!