Day 1 Bradford to Douglas

At last the club had got enough people interested in visiting the Isle of Man. We couldn't go with our own JAK travel this time but we were very lucky to be transported by Jef (with a J and one F) from Alfa travel who visits the Isle of Man 19 times a year so had a lot of local knowledge. We also had Patrick on board who has been going to the island since the 1950s and has seen it in all weathers!
We set off from Bradford at 9.00 am picking up a few people along the way and arrived in Heysham Village at lunch time. 

We had made good progress so had plenty of time to eat our lunch and look around before it was time to board the Isle of Man steam packet the Ben-my-Chree. (Woman of my heart) 
The weather had been very windy the day before we sailed so I was a bit apprehensive about the crossing but it had calmed down a lot thankfully and the boat was very stable. I spent the whole crossing outside on deck in the fresh air and don't know how many times I had to answer the question 'have you been here all the time?' Well yes I had and no I wasn't cold. Here's a clip of what it could have been like!

The voyage took about three and a half hours although by the time we had passed all the wind farms you could already see the Isle of Man on the far horizon.

We arrived just after 5.30 after a complicated manoeuvre in the harbour to turn the ship around. I got some photos of this on Day 4. It didn't take us long to reach our hotel, The Hydro, on the northern end of Douglas seafront. Our luggage was transported to our rooms while we had an early dinner before finding out which of the five floors we would be on. Yes of course you guessed it, I was on the fifth floor sharing with Anita. 79 steps up. There was a lift of course but we didn't use it. A curiously shaped room but it had a sea view and a bath so no complaints.

We finished the day with a walk along the seafront and around the town to get our bearings before unpacking and sinking into bed.