As you stand on the Fylde Coast at Cleveleys and look out to sea, if you are lucky and the weather is right, you might spot land ahoy!
Look to your right along the coast and Morecambe Bay and you’ll often see the Lakes, the ship yard at Barrow, and the power station at Heysham. The winter lakes are often snow dusted, which is a spectacular sight on a clear day. On a really clear day you’ll even be able to see the wind turbines on the hills of the Lakes.
Only poor visibility blocks the view of the 30 turbines of the Barrow Offshore Windfarm in the Irish Sea. If you are interested in the windfarm you can learn more about it here. The Barrow turbines are the largest visible ones, and during 2010 you might have noticed smaller turbines appearing to their left. This is the Walney Offshore Windfarm, and the cable for the second phase of 51 turbines is to come ashore at Cleveleys during the summer of 2011. You can read more about it here.
Face straight ahead, and at about 1 o'clock, and on a really clear evening in mid summer with a bright sunset you might see the hills of the Isle of Man silhouetted against the falling sun. You can even see the Tower of Refuge on the top of Conister Rock if the conditions are right.
Looking along the coast to the left you can clearly see Blackpool Tower and North Pier, but slightly to their right across the sea lies Anglesey and North Wales is often visible - they become more clear as you travel south on the coast road towards Blackpool.
Fleetwood occupies the peninsula that is bounded by the sea and the River Wyre. The coast curves away so when you look to your right along the coast you can't actually see Fleetwood from Cleveleys, but as you travel to Fleetwood along the coast road the view of Morecambe Bay and the Lakes changes completely.
If you are interested in the ferries and ships you can follow their movements on a website called ShipAIS which plots their movement across the seas. Unfortunately, on Christmas Eve 2010 the last ferry bound for Larne in Ireland sailed out of Fleetwood.
