Thursday 12 August 2010 Faringdon

One week ago Alcyone arrived back to her home port of Hythe. A quick stripping of the boat to remove all fresh food and dirty laundry and then home for a family dinner, a huge pile of correspondence and sleep. A couple of days sleeping and dealing with accounts and correspondence and then back to Alcyone for cleaning.

There has been time to reflect on the cruise.

We were away for 83 days and covered 1,880 miles. The longest days passage was 141 miles from Scarborough to Great Yarmouth and the shortest was 2 miles from Corpack Basin to Banavie on the Caledonian Canal (but that did include Neptune’s Staircase) or, in open sea, 4 miles from Portavadie to Tarbert. Of the 83 nights, 54 were sent in marinas of one sort or another, 8 on pontoons, 10 alongside a wall, 8 on moorings and (rather surprisingly) only 1 at anchor with 2 nights at sea. For much of the time we had light winds from ahead. A spinnaker was carried round Britain but stayed in its locker; only once did we rig the spinnaker pole to boom out the genoa.

The nature and quality of the various marinas was very variable but the prize for the best facilities must go to Portavadie. It was magnificent! The worst; well ..............

Inevitably there were some ‘magic moments’ – a combination of weather, place and people. Motoring between Mull and the mainland when William announced that we should have something hot for lunch, would I like cheese on toast?; he disappeared below, then popped up to announce he could not cook without music – may he plug his iPhone into the radio; then popped up again to announce that he had chosen the most innocuous music; then slices of cheese on toast being passed up. Or anchoring at Lindesfarne for lunch and exploring into the harbour. Or the wonderful anchorage at Carrick Castle, Loch Gail. Or sitting on a bench on the foreshore at Grimsby Sound, Tresco with a pint looking out over the sound.

But the final word can go to Robin Wills whom we met in Dunstaffnage, Oban in his new Malo 38. By email a few days later, having sailed back to Portsmouth, he commented  “ ..... but the strong depression over the Hebrides meant we had 25 knots of wind and two wave trains each of 2 metres with the occasional peak, or trough, of 2.5 to 3 metres. We fell off a couple of waves but otherwise Cantata II coped well with only two offerings for the helmsman. Whilst a Co32 would not have fallen with such a pounding we would have been much wetter...........”

Next time .........