I hope you have good time. Last time I visited was as a teenager in 1973. Those were the days you got a sticker on the bikes petrol tank stipulating 'Tank Pumped Out'.
For those that don't know, once upon a time, the Isle of Man steam packet company, refused to carry motorcycles on the crossing with full petrol tanks. It was a safety thing before the days of health and safety!
This left you to push the bike aboard the ferry from the terminal (Heysham in my case) and then on reaching the island, a 200 yard push up the dockside to a petrol station, which was conveniently owned by the steam packet company. Here they sold the petrol back to you!
When you think of the thousands of bikes that go over for the fortnight it was a very lucrative income for the ferry company! Either 1974 or 1975 they ceased doing this after many complaints and a petition to both the UK and the Manx parliaments to outlaw it.
