Last week posted about travelling to the Isle of Man to work in a church building there. Now with a little more time on my hands I thought I would share a a few more pictures of the town of Douglas, which is about all I saw as it was where the ferry port is and also where I stayed and worked.
Above and below is the rather unusually shaped Ferry Terminal the latter is taken from the end of the promenade, with the ferry on the other side.
Turning 90 degrees anticlockwise from the picture above you see...
There is an interesting story behind this little sea view. Its not the result of a sand castle competition. The land bank was a shipping hazard so the structure was built to warn ships and also provide a refuge in the storm for shipwrecked sailors.
St Marys Isle, which is submerged at high tide caused countless shipwrecks. In 1826 Sir William Hillary proposed the building of a refuge on the tiny island to give victims hope and also make the underwater menace more visible. Nothing was done, but following the wreck of the "St George" in November 1839 Sir William tried again, this time getting approval and he managed to raise the £275 required to complete the work, the first stone was laid quite fittingly on St Georges Day 1832.
Sir William is also famous for founding the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI)
Turning a further 90 degrees away from St Marys Isle is the Promenade..
Having a very Victorian holiday feel about it the prom is wide and spacious and still has the old horse drawn trams as a tourist attraction. The first picture shows the 4 lane road but there is also a similar width of pedestrian space between the road and sea wall.
If you were wondering about the sea water quality it seemed pretty clear.. but it wasn't warm enough to paddle my toes this early in the year !
Talking of sea, I only had a spare hour to wonder the promenade then it was back on board the SeaCat ferry (so called as it is a very large catamaran or twin hull ship) you get a bit of a feel for her size from this next picture taken from in my driving seat, just after parking up on the car deck.
Then it was a 70 mile sea journey home that took just under two and a half hours with a force 5-6 tail wind. The following video is firstly through the window from my seat on the upper deck, then from outside on the aft deck. It was a bit choppy as you will see
