Tomorrow the 9th August Paget's Lady is off to Whitehaven where we will be staying for a week at least, then possibly over to the IOM, and Kirkcudbright, these are short passages and if we get some summer weather then should be good cruising, we will see, anybody wanting to have a day sailing or a few days or even a couple of hours in the evening, please get in touch by phone 07768632080, or e-mail to mikepaget@sailingforfun.co.uk we can discuss your need and what it will cost.

15th August.

Best made plans usually go wrong, these were no exception, the weather has been so bad that I didn't get out of Glasson dock until yesterday 14th, had an exciting sail over to Piel island, where I picked up a mooring, had dinner there spent the night, woke for the forecast at 0520 hrs SW 4/5 occ6 backing into the SE 5/6 occ 7 later, so I left Piel at 0600 hrs motored down the channel to Halfway shoal into a foul tide about .5 kt and short sharp waves, at Halfway shoal I was able to bear away and make sail 1 reef in the Genoa and 2 in the main, wind was 20 kts gusting 25 kts we were soon making 7.3 kts the sun came out for a while but there were plenty of clouds on the horizon coming my way.

0825 hrs Black Combe on the starboard beam, I called the Eskmills firing range to let them know I was on my way, I would be in their area around 0945 hrs and would let them know when I was at Selker rocks, which I did, dead on time, weather still fine sailing now on beam reach with large quartering swell, occasionally surfing at 8 kts, as they only had one gun to fire before lunch I was ok to carry on, ( I am not sure what else I could have done but they like us to call ) just off St Bees town, I passed two people in a kayak heading out toward the IOM to them the waves were huge, then a yacht passed going south.

Once passed St Bees head I was able to bear away onto a run, jibed the main goose winged for a while, before  starting the engine furling the genoa  main, I called up the harbour control who gave me the all clear to enter the lock, which for the first time ever was on free flow, I collected my instructions and motored into my berth, all went without a hitch, for a change.

Comfortable berth handy for the facilities etc, a good passage and I am in before the wind goes into the east and blows 8 at least that was the forecast.

42 nm 6 hours passage if only all passages were that easy.

On the 20th September Paget's Lady will be heading south once again, back to Jersey where we have spent the last two Winters plan is to depart Glasson Dock on the 20th and make our way to Jersey, calling at Caernarfon, Milford Haven, Padstow, Newlyn, Falmouth, Plymouth, Salcombe, Guernsey & Jersey. These are places that I visit when sailing singlehanded as I only sail during the day,but night sailing is fine if I have crew so we can vary these passages if we want too there are also some places we can visit if the weather is suitable for anchoring in sheltered bays. If you would like to join me on any of these passages, I will make every effort to make it possible, please contact me and we can have a chat about it.