What is planned for 2022?

We’ve made four cruises to Scotland having visited in 2015, 2017 & 2019 & 2021.  Obviously, we have visited many of the places that we have managed to miss previously.  For example,

1. Having missed Islay in 2015, we visited on two subsequent occasions ie 2017 & 2019. Definitely not to be missed (routed with Ballycastle & Rathlin Island).
2. We managed to get ashore on Staffa in 2019.  Holding is on poor ground and, so, with the swell, we could not anchor in 2017 because of the Swell.  2019 was a dead-calm and, so, we took our chance.  Fingal’s Cave and the puffins are a must-see.
3. We managed the Outer Hebrides in 2017, 2019 & 2021.  Absolutely brilliant with the Black House the highlight and lots of places to anchor.  Between heavy showers, I managed to walk round to the memorial to the wreck of HMY Iolaire on 31st December 1918 on the “Beasts of Holm”.
4. We managed to visit the Orkneys in 2017, 2019 & 2021.  Highlights are numerous, but Skara Brae and the Churchill Barriers are truly memorable.
5. We managed the Caledonian Canal, west to east, in 2017 & 2019.  Definitely not to be missed.
6. We cycled into Fort William in 2019, but walking up Ben Nevis still eludes us!!!

We still don’t take golf clubs (need a 42 footer for that), but do take fold-up bikes, which, in 2019, enabled us to cycle from Stromness to Kirkwall and back, cycle the length of Rathlin Island and cycle into Fort William.  We would have cycled more, but the bikes can’t be got ashore in a dinghy!!

What happened in 2021?

Our hope was to reach the Shetlands, but the weather has to be right (for us) and it wasn’t.  Some folk we met in Arbroath carried on to the Shetlands and reported unfavourable weather.  Incidentally, where this blog started, whilst in the Shetlands, the same folk reported a chap turning up in a Wayfarer having sailed from near Wick!  Turned out to be Jeremy Warren of Hafren fame and the inspiration for this Tiftie journey.

Re Gina’s 2nd jab which was due in June and which we expected to return to, she managed to get a walk-in jab at Whitby as a result of a ‘no-show’!  That, despite my previous comment that the jabs cannot be relocated.

What of 2022?

When thinking what I would do with my life after Joy had passed in 2005, one thing was to sail around Great Britain (the island) by myself.  That got put on the ‘back burner’ until it was re-awakened by the Hafren circumnavigation and led to the purchase of Tiftie in September 2014.  So, in 2015, I did sail (actually 60% of the time with the engine running!) around Great Britain, but with my beautiful wife, Gina.

This year, after spending seven summers cruising Scotland or France, Gina wanted to get her low golf handicap (12) back (now 17).  This she is doing by not cruising.  This coincided with me reaching the age of 80 on the last day of May.

So, on 1st June, 2022, at 80, I embarked on this circumnavigation of Great Britain, single-handed .