So we're going to Scotland, at least that is the plan. So what is the plan?
Well we head off from the Solent around the 23/24th of May and head west, hopefully making it to Dartmouth or Plymouth, down to Graham's home town of Falmouth, onto Newlyn and the Scillies. from there it's all dependant on the weather if the wind is from the east, south or west we'll be heading for the south east of Ireland, if the wind is from the north west we could be heading for Wales. But if it's in the north around to north east we'll be staying in the Scillies!
From there it's up through the Irish sea, and around to the west of the Mull of Kintyre then up into western Scotland, Inner and Outer Hebrides up to the northwest point of Scotland, Cape Wrath, before heading east to the Orkneys. From there we hope to head south towards Lossiemouth and take a day or two to explore Speyside before heading west to Inverness and the start of the Caledonian Canal. The Caley will take us from the east coast of Scotland through Loch Ness and back out to the west coast. once there we'll retrace our route south to the Crinian Canal at the top of the Kintyre and pass into the Firth of Clyde.
We now have a few options depending on time and weather.
1, Sail Pixie south back down to the Solent, the way we came.
2, Leave Pixie in Scotland and sail back down over the odd weekend (but the weather will start deteriorating at that time of year
3, See if friends want to sail Pixie back while we are back at work
4, Winter Pixie in Scotland and sail her back down over two weeks in 2011
5, Put Pixie on the back of a lorry and have her brought back by road.
Obviously we favour the first option, to sail her back and complete the trip, but if we're enjoying Scotland, we don't want to feel we have to be back at the beginning of September.
So there you have it, that's the plan for 2010, and you can follow how we get on in this blog.