Late arrival at RNLI Troon at 10.15 p.m. due to late departure from Douglas Isle of Man.
The journey took 7 hours and 15 minutes.
John is eased from the seat of the Jetski by Mark Harding on board the Safewater 2.
Ocean Runner offloaded at RNLI landing stage shortly after arrival
and before the refuelling commenced.
John in good spirits in the crew room of RNLI Troon.
Cold but glad to have made it so far.
John on the mobile phone to Sarah his wife,
pictured next to Wally (the team mechanic).
Eddie pictured testing Mr Kippling's Exceedingly good cakes.
He decided that they were to good to share.
Who's gonna argue ?
Getting stuck in Douglas harbour was a massive blow to spirits but John's amazing power of problem solving gave us lots of options.
One of the options John followed was to effectively commandeering a 7.5 ton flat back, trainee and instructor to come to our aid. Our thanks to Peter Howe of Motovation driving school.
The truck was required to carry the craned out boats to the far side of the harbour, however the crane got called to an urgent job in Peel so that plan fell apart. We were left with no option but for nature to take it's course and the tide to become favourable.
Thanks again to Sheila Wilson from Onchan who donated a wrist supprt for John's right wrist as the journey was beginning to take the strain... !!
During the wait we visited the remains of the Solway Harvester and the crew of the Voyager team paid our respects, and although our situation seemed bad, it wasn't really that bad.
Finally at 3 o'clock we got under way making good progress to the Point of Ayre at the northern point of the island at 4.10 pm to start our crossing to Scotland.
The sea was flat calm and it was a fantastic crossing, we had porpoise swimming next to us keeping us company. We reached Mull of Galloway at 5.40 pm to start the leg to Troon.
The leg to Troon was problematic, the sea whipped up slowing down our
times. Even though we had the problems there was still plenty to laugh
about especially the seagull bombing on Mark Blands head !!!
Which leaves the question .. what is bigger?
The Irish sea , or Marks head?
We had a helicopter who came to wish us well as he was on his way to exercise with Troon Lifeboat. As we saw the lights to Troon spirits were lifted on the most difficult day yet.
Hopefully tomorrow won't be as problematic as we head for the Crinnen Canal but I'm sure that this fantastic team that has come together will get us through.