What did you do before breakfast this morning? Had a nice shower? Maybe a good sit down with the daily paper for your morning constitution in the little room downstairs? Or did you get on the 5.45 to Waterloo and sit with all your commuters before being subjected to the indignity of a deskfast? (That's corporate speak for breakfast at your desk). On Rufffian, all before breakfast, we had crossed a sea, made new friends and achieved a stretch goal that all onboard thought would even challenge Disneys Incredibles.

We left the last blog on a bit of a cliff hanger. Would we make the tidal gate at Peel? To catch the best of the tide to sweep us South we slipped lines at 1 am, but before we got out of the harbour, Bangor had a final treat in store for us. Being a Saturday night the nightclubs were heaving and as we left we witnessed one lucky fella going for a moonlit romantic stroll down the peirhead with his new mate. What they didn't expect was to get highlighted by a 1 million candlepower spotlight from the bow of an innocent little sailboat!

As soon as sails were set and we'd exited Belfast Lough our ETA was 10:45, all a bit wedding night for making the sill on the entrance to Peel Harbour, Isle of Man. As the wind built, far more than had been forecast, and the tide increased we started to worry that the harbour would be closed as the swell was enormous, but all was happy for the moment and Ruffian was lapping it up, surfing down the waves and then climbing up the other side. As we turned into the harbour, more than an hour ahead of schedule, and tucked in behind its protective wall, there was no swell and the harbour master simply opened the gate and we were in. We'd nailed our gaol and Ruffian had recorded her best passage speed. By getting to the Isle of Man not only were we another 50 miles south, but we had also exited the EU so were now technically in foreign waters and all this before most people had opened the Sunday papers. Oh and we'd also made best friends with the harbour master.

There is an old adage that the jobs list on a boat never gets any shorter no matter how hard you work, its just the things on it change. Over the past few months we've been pretty good at keeping the list nice and small but there were some things that just kept being pushed to the bottom. Those big jobs were cleaning the topsides and hull and then polishing everywhere. These are jobs that require dry, but not hot weather and lots and lots and lots of water and so much waxing on and waxing off that we'd feel ready to star in the 1980's film Karate Kid. We had all of these in abundance and after two days of scrubbing, elbow grease and polishing Ruffian's hull was like a mirror and you now need sunglasses to work on deck it's so gleaming.

With all the work done we thought that we'd slip out of the locked harbour, and moor up in the outer harbour, in preparation for heading to southern Ireland and then have a fully touristy day. We'd take in one of the museums, eat an ice cream on the front and take in the view where you can see Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England from a single spot. When we got outside we could either leave in 12 hours time or now, right now, no mulching about, right now. So ice creams, museums and other touristy delights were put aside, off we went making for southern Ireland.

A fully rolly windy exciting sail from Bangor to Peel.


We entered an island where all sailors are expected to have 3 legs. How would Fiona cope?


Peel castle guarding the entrance and stopping the swell.


We took in the kipper smokery at Peel.


Wax on.


Wax off.


The fruits of the sea were in abundance with Lobster, Crab and Mackerel a plenty.


Larry took in the local library (free internet) and showed us his intellectual side.