May 17th and 18th R E S P E C T

Sometimes the sea reminds you who is boss and believe me do not argue with Big Daddy Sea. It's always when you get a bit too cocky and a bit too sure of yourself something happens to bring you back to humility. On the water this is Tide with a capital T, weather and Neptune himself.
This morning on departing a rather grim port, Holyhead, Neptune gave me a good rasp on the knuckles. I try to be prepared so the previous evening I consulted the charts, checked my tides, formulated a passage plan to sail Northwards through the Irish sea to my next stop Peel on the Isle of Man. I knew that we had to leave at a very certain very early hour to be able to leave the port and further out catch a swift tide flowing towards my destination. Tide for me is a free fast ride and I try to make it work for me.

Waking up at silly hours of the morning especially after a late arrival is never easy. Needless to say, you can guess what comes next, we were late, only a mere 45 minutes. In my arrogance and morning drowsiness I didn't bother revising my plan. Full steam ahead I left Holyhead harbour past the ferries past the big cruise ship past the long breakwater out towards the headland. So what I'll punch a little contray foul counter flow until we get into the good stream.

Ha! The joke was on me. Poor little Rumline, was caught like a fly in a spiderweb. We were at the mercy of the tide, not a little 2 knot nasty but a big mean 5.8 knot mother of a spring nightmare tide which refused to let us go. This in itself would not be so bad but the direction it wanted to take us was towards some nasty nasty races and worse The Skerries, horrible ship crunching rocks. Two hours later, after a full throttle battle, we inched our way out of the tiger current's jaws and into the favourable one. I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked my trusty engine for not letting us down and Rumline for again being a determined little boat.

Past the big boats we blindly proceeded

Nasty water

Big lessons learnt: those little tidal triangles on the chart are there for a reason don't rely soley on the almanac atlas tidal stream charts unless you are familiar with the water, LOOK AT THEM! Secondly, if plans are delayed, re-routed or changed make certain the former plan is still safe and suitable. DONT BE LAZY! And lastly most importantly always RESPECT the sea and its power. Penetance paid and humility regained we flew to Peel at an average of over 7 knots and arrived at Peel at the original time.