This was posted from the ferry the Ben-My-Chree en route from Douglas, Isle of Man to Heysham UK across the Irish Sea.
Today Davina (Mick’s cousin) and her husband Roy left with
us for a weeks holiday on the Isle of Man and we were able to take the hire car. The Isle of Man is a small island
off the west coast of England
across the Irish Sea and is famous for its TT
races which use the islands normal roads. Manx cats (with no tails) originated
there and the famous Manx Norton motorcycles where named after the Island
We drove from Whitley
Bay on the east coast of England to
Heysham on the west coast to catch the 2.15pm ferry, a large ship called the
Ben My Chree, for the 4 hour trip to the island. Roy had organized everything for us including
renting a cottage for a week so as expected, it all went very smoothly.
We left Whitley bay at 9am and took the A69 onto the M6
before exiting for Lancaster and then Heysham. After driving 225klms, we
arrived at the port at Heysham at 12.15pm. We made better time than we expected
and only encountered minor delays due to roadworks which meant we had a 1 1/2
hour wait in the queue waiting to board the ferry.
We had a to wait for it to arrive from the Isle of man and
then dock and disgorge dozens of trucks, cars and motorbikes which had been at
the Isle of Man for a race meeting on the weekend.
We got away pretty much on time after they had loaded some
large semi-trailers containing all sorts of goods including food stuffs for the
major supermarket chains and various other motor vehicles including some new
cars and after a relatively smooth trip, arrived at Port Douglas.
The sea was a little chopped up as there was quite a strong
wind of force 5-6 according to the captain and Lyn was feeling a little queasy
but otherwise everyone was OK.
It didn’t take long for us to disembark and after a 30
minute drive we arrived at our lovely cottage with 180 degree views of the sea.
The cottage is at the end of a country lane so through traffic is not going to
be a problem!
Lyn created a lovely evening meal from ingredients we had
brought with us and we then relaxed and watched the first episode of the new
Doc Martin series.
The Isle of Man ferry
The car GPS even has the ferry routes in red, I guess that means don't drive into the sea!
The Isle of Man even has it's own money 
I can't help but wonder if someone eventually follows the arrow on the GPS and drives into the ocean. Similar things have been reported in the news where people have got stuck in all sorts of weird places.
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