Fleetwood, a winter home for 'NJ'

Once we were clear of the River Mersey entrance, we had a good run over from Liverpool to Fleetwood, arriving a couple of hours before the lock opened. Anchoring was a possibility, but there were lots of moorings laid in the area off the marina entrance.

Fortunately, there was a substantial mooring unoccupied, so we picked this up, and had our supper while we waited for the lock.

The lock keeper was very helpful, guiding us in over the deepest water over VHF radio, and allocating us an easy alongside berth near to the facilities, and marina office. We had shortlisted Fleetwood Marina for our over winter home for ‘NJ’, along with Liverpool, and Preston. After the long slog up and down the Mersey, Liverpool had been crossed off. Preston looked quite pleasant, but was again about 10 miles up the River Ribble. The well laid out, and maintained facilities at Fleetwood have persuaded us, and we made enquires at the office. We were invited to look over the whole marina, including the area inside a swing bridge where the pontoon fingers were longer, allowing more scope for securing the boat for winter gales. Another plus point for Fleetwood was a large retail outlet adjacent to the marina, and a large ASDA within easy walking distance.

After a few days recharging our batteries, and restocking the boat, we prepared to leave, bound for Douglas on the Isle of Man. As the lock opened, a flurry of activity on the VHF warned us that there was a dredger about to enter the lock from seaward, and another moving out from the inner dock, squeezing through the gap spanned by a swing bridge. We really felt the surge of water pressure as the dredgers passed us.

Just as we moved off the pontoon, another smaller vessel appeared with a new channel marker buoy strapped to the bow, this followed us most of the way down the approach channel until it got to the intended site  for the buoy ( No. 6 PHS ), so we can expect a nice shiny addition to the channel when we return in a week or so.

Once past the now derelict RoRo ferry terminal and clearing the entrance we set a course for Douglas, and once clear of the Morcambe bay sands, we followed this between three large wind farms, and then out into the Irish sea. At one point Sue spotted a small pod of Atlantic bottle nosed dolphins ( much larger and more powerful than their common dolphin cousins ) which briefly swam around the boat. At about 36NM to go we spotted the Isle of Man rising above the horizon. We had expected rain or showers on and off all day, but in the end we stayed dry until about one and half hours to go. We tied up to a rather agricultural looking waiting pontoon to eat our supper, and await the lowering of the flap gate into the inner harbour where the marina is situated.