Home and reflections on our adventure, September 15
Homeward bound
We had chosen to indulge in a Club Ensuite room on The Caledonian sleeper to London. It was a tight squeeze to fit in our luggage, but persistence and much pushing and tugging paid off. We had a tiny wash hand basin, shower and toilet, with a door, and ALL to ourselves. Our breakfast was delivered to us as we arrived ahead of schedule in London Euston station.
You might be forgiven for expecting that we’d be used to sleeping in a moving bunk, but Lynne didn’t sleep at all well, feeling the motion was at odds with the direction of travel! This might have been exacerbated by polishing off the hip flask of Armagnac we had brought with us, for medicinal purposes only, and hadn’t needed on the trip!
We arrived at home nice and early for an action-packed day. Peter was to return to France the next day; Lynne to follow five days later after she’d finished all the laundry, of which there was plenty.
Reflections on our trip
We had sailed for eleven days from Iceland to the West coast of Scotland, sailing through the night for five nights in stormy weather. We had moored for two nights in the Faroe Islands, three nights in different Scottish harbours and we had enjoyed one night anchored offshore. We had travelled 817 Nautical Miles (just over 1,500km).
We were never becalmed. We experienced blustery, strong, and near-gale force winds, but we did get some fantastic sailing. We had some gorgeous weather while on land in the Faroe Islands, but changeable weather in Scotland.
Lynne hadn’t expected that the only warm place on board was inside her sleeping bag; nor that she would be putting on wet socks and shoes in the morning. It took us a long time to acclimatise to the weather up north, probably due to our experiencing a very hot summer in France with the temperatures hovering around 40C. We certainly didn’t need to take our shorts or swimming togs. Thank goodness for the down Fladen suits provided to us, although wearing them together with the foulies, inhibited mobility.
We enjoyed mastering new skills and learning new rules and vocabulary. We were delighted and relieved that we were physically fit enough to pull our weight and that our years in the gym are paying off. We did however accumulate lots of bruises. Lynne regretted that she felt out of it for the first 48 hours but compensated with her participation thereafter.
It was great to be part of a team, grappling with the challenges together. And we did enjoy some fabulous sailing, mildly competing with each other at the helm.
We were delighted we were in Bluejay, with the care and understanding of our skipper and mate. Our crew mates weren’t bad either! Some of it was tough, but we had anticipated most of the privations of being at sea in such a small vessel. We managed to keep our cool and made time to be together.
We would have liked to spend longer in the Faroe Islands and the North-West of Scotland, but we were at the mercy of the autumn weather.
We enjoyed our time exploring ashore; our swaying sea legs proved more challenging than we’d expected. Despite the foul weather, we were glad to have book-ended the trip with time exploring Egilsstadir and Oban together, at our own pace, finding some delightful, delicious eateries.
What an adventure! We are so glad we did this and are very happy that we rose to the challenge. We’ve certainly earned some bragging rights.
Congratulations on completing the sail! Hope you have both dried out now 🙂
Well done you guys, what an adventure, I’m so impressed!
An intrepid couple – but you are still MAD!!
Well done ticking off another bucket list.