Yorkshire then the Isle of Man

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Because we were on a catamaran, the crossing was quick and no sooner was I asleep than we're woken up to disembark in Douglas at 4:45am.
After riding off the ferry, seemingly everyone but me then roared off purposely in various directions. At least dawn had broken but God knows where they were all going at that hour.
I parked 200m away and went for a wander around the pretty but deserted (obviously) waterfront -













On the harbour's drawbridge -




Kicked about until 6am when I was an early cafe's first customer (The Caff in Lord Street, great omelette, toast and tea served by the cheeriest waitress in the whole world). Blood sugar restored :cool: , retrieved the Viffer then cruised south down the A25.

Port St Mary and its Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk) memorial. The Isle of Man has a proud history in that theatre of war -




Kept going to the southern tip of the island, which overlooks the Calf of Man -





This cross commemorates the ship Lily. She was wrecked on those rocks just offshore in a storm in 1852, drowning 5 crewmen. Amongst other cargo, she was carrying 60 tons of gunpowder and the next day, a 30-man team of local men attempted salvage.
They setoff a cataclysmic explosion clearly heard 18 miles away. All but one of them died and most were never identified as they were literally blown to shreds with body parts being found miles away. The local area lost a whole generation of men and many families were left destitute. A report from the time - http://www.sailing-by.org.uk/shipwreck-lily-1852/ -




After reading this sombre story then watching some seals, I curled up on a nice soft sheltered piece of grass and went into a deep sleep. Woke up 4 hours later surrounded by bikes and tourists, went to the local cafe for a cup of tea, felt like 10 men :thumbs: .


Meandered north until picking up the TT course at Greeba. Lots of bikes suddenly and I followed the crowd. Short detour onto a little road at Ballaugh -



Then back onto the TT course . Most bikes & traffic just cruising along but a handful were pretty willing. The IOM TT Constabulary are very visible and enforce (the generous) limits. Full marks to them, they have the right mix of PR, common sense and enforcement.




Just out of Ramsay, for the 2 week period of practice and race, the road over the mountain is turned into a one-way system from just after The Hairpin until Creg-ny-Baa, and this section of road has no speed limit. These cones mark the initial preparation for it -




In a sleep deprived state, for all of this section I just stayed out of the way, kept well left and under 100mph, which was plenty. There's lots to think about beside incidentals like apexes and gearing, such as not running up the arse of a bit of normal traffic like delivery trucks, keeping a bubble of space between others and not getting squashed by those who had it pinned. I got overtaken by several bikes at a huge speed differential :eek: and toward the end, by a convoy of cars. Most were souped-up Nissan GTRs but they in turn were being gathered up rapidly by, of all things, a dune buggy :eek: . Hallucinating I thought, but later found it parked - an Ariel Nomad . Bearing down onto the GTRs, this thing absolutely wailed past me on the outside of a left hander on 3 wheels; an image ingrained into my brain :wot: .


Enough excitement for one day, so continued on the course until turning off for Peel and my B+B for the next few days. Aalin View - it has a great view over the water -




Went for a wander around Peel. It's a nice old town -









Resident Manx Cat -




Large tides -




Pretty happy with this pic, overlooking the 11-century Viking-built castle, taken from outside the front door of the B+B. I'd accidentally turned on the Olympus's Art format and I like the effect -




More to come . . .
 
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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member


:drool::drool::clap:
There's a whole story in that shot alone... magic!
Man, you're really taking us along for some hell of a ride :thumbs:



They setoff a cataclysmic explosion clearly heard 18 miles away. All but one of them died and most were never identified as they were literally blown to shreds with body parts being found miles away. The local area lost a whole generation of men and many families were left destitute. A report from the time - http://www.sailing-by.org.uk/shipwreck-lily-1852/ -

That must've been one hell of a bang...and one bang to hell.:eek::eek:
 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Yeah, accidentally...sure! :D

Nah, turned out I had fat fingers and kept activating it. If it only took 1 'art' photo it would have been OK, but it takes 12 simultaneously in varying arty formats and then takes a while to process . . . .:lol: .
 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Woke up to a drizzly morning. After a giant breaky, went off to race central in Douglas to pickup my IOMTTMA (Marshals) pack. I'd signed on some months earlier, nominating Sector 5 purely because it was close to Peel. Looking forward to that :wink:. -




Then met up with mate Casey, who was staying in Douglas, and went off to Castletown for the Classic Southern 100. A nice low key event and had a terrific day watching old valuable bikes and sidecars getting thoroughly caned -







One of a handful of Patons. This one's identical twin won its event -

(this is a video, I can make it play by clicking on the pic which then launches the vid - hope it works generally) -



Then sloshed through some paddocks and clambered over some fences to go watch some racing -

(video) -



(video) -



Headed back to Peel with the bike handling like a drunken sailer. Rear tyre nearly flat :( (new Pilot Road 4s too). Refilled air at a servo, then back to the B+B to get ready for marshalling. We'd been told to be at our stations by 5:30, but at 5pm the website declared practice cancelled due to low cloud.
Low cloud is apparently the most common cause for cancellations, but not for the reason I thought. It's got nothing to do with the riders' visibility - it's that if helicopters are grounded, then Medi-vac is not possible, hence no-go.

So had a stroll around Peel's harbour . . . -






. . . for a fish dinner (note "post a fish". It's a thing here :???: ) -




Some serious machinery. Hair raising stories of sheer courage :bow: in the little museum inside -









Then an evening beer :scull: over a moody castle, contemplating life -




More . . .
 
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twowheeler

two wheels are best
Next morning the VFR's rear tyre is flat as a tack again, so limped down to a grungy looking tyre repair place in Peel's dock area I'd spotted last night. The guy said he was flat out and couldn't do it until Thursday :( .
Horrible visions of joined the bikeless in the long bus queues flashed before my eyes. Instead I managed to say "OK but I was hoping to use the bike this arvo to get to Marshalling". "Marshalling" was like a magic word - he said come back at lunchtime and it'll be ready (and it was). Top bloke :thumbs: .

So went walking again, which was no hardship around here.

Up the local hill lookout (not being creepy - that's the back of my head after experimenting with the tripod and time-delay shutter) -




Then chatted with these Scottish blokes, who regularly go on bike/scuba trips, as you do.
It was not warm :cold: -




Leece Museum, great little display -













Lunch venue, which could be described as low-key :wink: -




Postal theme again :???: . . . -




Kipper bap and a cup of tea. Lunch of kings :drool: -




Then picked up the bike, which was ready as promised, and went riding. Up on the B10 -




Could get a tad windy up here, what do you reckon ? :shock: -




Descended down the tiny B22. This pic sums up the IOM attitude to speed limits. Anything within a town is 30mph and enforced. Any road outside a town, regardless of its condition, is 70mph :lol: -




Then the rain cleared:woot: . Practice confirmed as on :woot: , so headed off to Sector 5 and Burnside, the spot I'd been allocated to. Met the team, many of whom have been doing it for 25+ years. The owner of the farmyard we used knew almost everyone by name; it was a really nice atmosphere :thumbs: -




Burnside is just after the hump marking the end of the Cronk-d-Voddy straight -




Tools of trade. Every one of the 560 marshal points on the course has a kit like this, as well as radios and so on. As a novice-marshal though, my job was to spot race numbers and perhaps hold a flag, which was fine by me -



Understandably, marshals are not allowed to take pictures, so no photos for the next few hours. One of my jobs was to spot race numbers as the riders went past, so if they crashed, were leaking oil, etc, in our sector we could call them in to central command. Easy job eh ? Well, although the bikes could be heard for many seconds before they appeared over the hump, nailing it down the Cronk straight, despite lifting off slightly before the hump, they came over at 150+mph usually on the back wheel and were gone in a violent flash of colour and noise. It took lots of bikes before I recalibrated my brain to catch the numbers :eek: .


It turned into a lovely evening with clear, beautiful light. Around 9pm, after the sidecars had finished, race radio told us that there'd be a pair of bikes doing an extra lap before the roads reopened to the public. It turned out (as I guessed at the time :wink: ) it was for a promotional video. Although there were 2 S1000RRs that went past, only Peter Hickman on his cam-covered bike is shown in the video. You could tell when they went past that they were showboating as they pulled massive full-speed wheelies down our little straight. It's the best IOM video I've seen and is 19 mins well spent (I'm at 5:39 btw :whistle: ) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=182jaLmnSyc


Beer and curry at my fav dinner spot that evening -

 
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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
One of a handful of Patons. This one's identical twin won its event -

(this is a video, I can make it play by clicking on the pic which then launches the vid - hope it works generally) -

.


Works fine here :chug:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
(I'm at 5:39 btw :whistle: ) -

Yeah, saw you there... :doh::killingme



Beer and curry at my fav dinner spot that evening -



Oh yeah!! My kind of spot, too :glu
I'm enjoying this yarn immensely...and the "human" side of the whole thing in particular.

Enough distance to see the whole picture, but close enough to be part of it.
And all that with enough space to fill in the little voids with imagination.
Bravo, storyteller!:clap::clap:
 
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