Planning, training, skills

What’s it like to sail around Great Britain in a 28-foot boat?

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So my fiance Mark only went and self-published an e-book on our experience sailing around the coast of Great Britain earlier this year.

It’s titled – A Voyage Around Britain in a small Yacht: A true and honest log of two everyday people sailing around the UK.

I’m incredibly excited and proud!

Of course I’m biased but even with my former magazine editor hat on I can say it’s a great little read (even if there is the odd typo).

When we first announced we were going to sail around Great Britain, I was surprised that quite a few people said to me they, or someone they knew, had always dreamed of doing that but they didn’t know how to approach it or they were worried about certain aspects, like sailing around Cape Wrath.

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Learning to sail – the baptism-by-fire way

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I can count on one hand the number of times I have been on a sailboat – and that’s with chopping two of my fingers off.

I know nothing about boats. I can’t remember port from starboard, stern from bow, gybe from tact (opps I mean tack).

I have no idea if I get seasick.

The toilet is a bucket with a toilet seat, the contents of which I have to chuck over the side of the boat.

There is currently nowhere to decently wash my hands and I don’t do dirty hands.

And dirty hands are part and parcel of sailing – disgusting, wet, dirty, muddy, mouldy ropes wherever you look. As well as large, copious amounts of gluggy bird poo. Yuck!

So, when my partner Mark, who has been sailing for 20 years, bought a new boat recently, I was suddenly introduced to a whole new and scary world.

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How much training is enough?

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3,000km. Five to six months. Mountains, forests, knee-high mud, wet river crossings, kayaking, road walking. The legendary Te Araroa trail down the length of New Zealand. How much training is enough?

I put my hands up – I think I’m not doing enough. At least when I was walking up Box Hill last weekend with a 9.5kg backpack on my back it certainly felt like I hadn’t been doing enough.

Annoying, when back in March I’d put together a comprehensive four-month training programme for this adventure. But life gets in the way. I haven’t stuck to it. Actually, I haven’t even come close. Continue reading →

Volcano number 16: The sublime crater lake volcano

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The Yellow Bus’ door closed and it accelerated off before I could figure out if that was the stop I needed. I looked at the brochure and my map amid high-speed twists and turns. Yeah, I probably should have got off at that stop, I realised.

Oh well, final stop it was then – the Vista do Rei viewpoint that overlooked the magnificent and photo-famous Lagoa das Sete Cidades in the north west of the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores.   Continue reading →

Volcano number 15: The not-what-it-was-supposed-to-be volcano

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“I guess I should be grateful that I’m actually on my way to see a volcano,” I thought as the ‘Yellow Bus’ hurtled through the Azorean countryside, passing fields of maize and languid dairy cows.

It had almost been a no-volcano day after a caffeine-deficient, panic-fuelled morning. I’d arrived in the Azores – the volcanic archipelago off the coast of Portugal – the night before rearing to tick off four more volcanoes in my #40by40 challenge.

But it didn’t start the way it was intended to. Continue reading →