With the forecast showing signs that the weather was going to deteriorate after Saturday there was a choice to be made. Either stay put on the Isle of Man for a few days or make a run for to the mainland.

With my parents in the Lake District and it being only 35 miles away, I soon had planned a midday departure. After confirming that we could leave with the Port Authorities (they have to lift a bridge which involves stopping the town centre traffic) I arranged to leave at 1pm. With Tesco only 200m away I replenished supplies and started making sandwiches for the evening trip.

After finally tracking down the Harbour Master and getting access to the toilet block we motored off the wall shortly before 1pm. The bridge raised like clockwork and after waiting for the Fastcat to depart we were on our way.

It was clear that this was going to be a fast downwind leg. With the wind blowing force 3 from the southwest we were sailing fast up the southeast of the Island. This leg was pretty straightforward with only two shallow areas of sea to avoid northeast of the Island but other than that a straight-line trip towards St Bees Head.

After experimenting with “reaching off” (not sailing directly downwind) it became clear that it was going to be far faster (and comfortable in the waves) to head straight down wind. Having said that with the waves coming from two directions (mainly from the southwest) the autohelm was no use and it was hand steering all the way. This meant that each time I wanted to leave the cockpit (like to grab a chart to find out where we were!) the easiest practice was to hove-to (boat sideways to the wind with the sails pulled in on opposite sides to balance each other).

It was all good fun with Silverwind racing forward in the wave at this point at about 6 knots. One problem with going down wind is it is easy not to notice the wind increasing. In these conditions, the wind speed you feel is decreased by the boats speed. I thought something was up when Silverwind started consistently to surf at 7 knots and max out at 7.8 knots (not bad as we were pushing against a ½ knot tide with one reef and the No. 2 up!)

It was now gusting about a force 6 and consistently force 5 so it was lucky Whitehaven was only 5 miles ahead. I brought Silverwind onto a reach and slowly brought the sails down. After a short period of gusty and choppy conditions just outside the harbour mouth the outer harbour was easy to enter. I was welcomed through the Sea Lock just as it was starting to get dark and pointed to a berth. I don’t know what the lock keeper thought of us when we got taken by the tide and went through the lock sideways – but I was in the harbour and the lock is definitely at least 25 feet wide!