Thursday. Leaving Day
.The plan was to catch the 8am ferry back to the mainland, then head north to Troon, Scotland, to meet up with Brenda and prepare for the next's day's flight to Italy (yeah, hard but someone's got to do it
).
Got into Douglas early, parked the VFR in the empty carpark and went for a coffee with Casey, who was staying on for part of race-week. I return to the bike in what I thought was plenty of time, to get a thorough rollocking
from the local constable who'd been directing traffic around my now-marooned VFR, much to Casey's amusement -
Joined the queue then waited and waited for hours for the non-existent ferry. Got talking with the people around me including Sandy, a Manx guy suffering from lead -poisoning, apparently from years of drinking water from Douglas's lead-lined pipes. I thought he was nearly 70 but it turned out he was near my age
. Anyway he was pretty chirpy and owns this Sommer. It's a 460cc diesel, which he'd picked up in Germany a few months earlier. It gets 186mpg (not a typo
) when ridden "enthusiastically" -
Heel and toe gear-lever -
Have a listen to its clatter upon startup
-
(video)
The ferry eventually arrived near lunchtime and as it was an old boat, it vibrated its way slowly back to the mainland to arrive bloody miles behind schedule. So plans for a scenic tour to Scotland got chucked and instead I just headed up the M6 before swinging off onto the A75 to cut across to Troon.
But not before an embarrassing fail on my part
.
After enjoying a great high speed run up the motorway, all perfect lane discipline and courteous attentive drivers, I was getting hungry and pretty tired so pulled into Carlisle Services and its BP service station.
Go straight to the Ultimate pump, fill up, grab some fast food, then leave. Bike cuts out 10 metres past the pump, with oil light on. To cut an hour-long story of unsuccessful remedies short, I eventually enlisted the help of AA-Service guys John and Kev (who thankfully were across the service road and were watching wondering how long it'd be before I came over). They tried a few things then suggested perhaps I'd filled it with diesel. I'm not that stupid I said but my receipt proved that I was
They said it happens more often than you'd think, but only at BP for some reason. Well, not excusing my stupidity, here's why ! -
BP Ultimate pump in Australia. It's petrol. Note dark blue /yellow colours and lettering font -
BP Ultimate pump in Britain. It's diesel -
FFS. Anyway, after a full fuel flush by John and 160 pounds later (he called it in as fuel-contamination instead of wrong-fuel which saved me 100 quid, top bloke), I'm on my way. The VFR just shrugged it off - it never blinked after that. What a bike
.
Scotland ! -
Eventually arrived in Troon at 10:30pm after a couple of hours in heavy rain which I didn't need by then; Brenda was pleased to see me (I think) :cdle .
Will do separate RRs on Italy then the lap of Scotland.