How it all started!
In March 2009, Moira and John Rugg plus my wife, June, and I chartered a vast catamaran in The British Virgin Islands for a week’s vacation. The four of us had been to the BVI before but chartering separate boats in a Sunsail flotilla (never again!)
Sitting in a beachside bar drinking painkillers (a form of rum punch for those who have never been there!) a couple of days into the holiday, I asked John if he fancied doing an extended trip sometime in 2010. I already knew that I would be taking early retirement in December 2009 and figured that I would need something to do to keep me out of mischief! We got a passing waiter to take the picture below – clearly the painkillers had taken their toll on June (top left) who was possibly asleep at this point!
An outline plan was hatched at that point to circumnavigate the UK via the West coast of Ireland and right around the top of Scotland. It remains to be seen whether this happens but we have fall back plans to cater for bad weather which take us up the East coast of Ireland and possible through the Caledonian canal. Having read a lot of Navy stories from WW2, I really want to go through Scapa Flow in the Orkneys.
Our detailed passage plan for the complete circumnavigation of Britain and Ireland, including the Isles of Scilly and the Orkneys, works out to about 2,400 miles in 100 days – allowing time to explore, make crew changes from time to time and or hole up should the weather turn against us.
The scheduled departure date from Haslar Marina in Gosport is Monday May 3 2010 with a shakedown sail to Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) and then to Weymouth – across Lyme bay - eventually to Falmouth and the Isles of Scilly and then across to Cork.
At the time of writing this forward section, we also have plans for a few other people to join us for various legs of the journey.