This is the start of what I hope will be an informative log of next year's cruise round Britain. I have long wanted to sail the west coast of Scotland, and had the ambition to go throught he Caledonian Canal. This year, after an enjoyable cruise along the South Coast to Brixham and back it occurred to me that that was roughly a third of the distance we would need to cover in a trip round the UK. Having digested that, it then became clear that if I wished to do just that, it would have to be done fairly soon at my age. So now I'm at the stage of having decided to do it and am gathering information and setting the broad outline of the plan. The idea is to set out in early May and travel leisurely, spending time in interesting places and taking perhaps three months.
Pepsand is in good order, and needs little work to bring her up to scratch. Charts have been obtained and a preliminary survey of UK ports carried out. The idea is to sail clockwise, but the detail has to be decided in view of conditions at the time. As for crew, it is comfortable with three, and ok with four, and there are plenty of joining points. A preliminary list would include Portsmouth, Weymouth, Plymouth, Falmouth, Fishguard, Holyhead, Belfast, Oban, Inverness, Edinburgh, and Scarborough. Crew are lined up for the Belfast - Oban leg, and for the canal.
This is Pepsand tied up to the new harbour wall beside the Brixham Y C last July.
