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Some of you may have seen it on ybw at the time, if so apologies for the repeat.
I bought a wee bradwell 18, renamed her Bethfran(my kids) at end of 2015, to learn to sail and navigate on. Took her from Maryport across the Solwayto kippford and back that October, and again in feb last year, to get the hang of the basics. Early may I left Maryport at 2am bound for Ramsey on the isle of man, with a vague plan of working my way up to scotland via Ireland in week/2week trips in between work, dumping her wherever I had reached to make my way back to the lakes each time. Maybe Lochinver? and then trailer her home? We actually got all the way up to Kinlochbervie, and across to stornoway by October, then started heading home.
A damaged rudder off the rhinns of galloway in mid november stopped her in stranraer for the winter, then this wee vid was made. I did actually get her back by mid march of this year. That felt a tough few days with 3am starts and bloody cold.
That wee boat took me 1200 miles, 1000 of them singlehanded, and when I got off and looked at her in Maryport, I thought..that was mebbe your last trip, your looking pretty fucked now! But who knows?
Navgation was by iphone with charts as a backup. No autopilot, no toilet, but she did have a wee cooker and some bunks, and a compass and old gps unit.
The next month I bought an old westerly longbow ketch with wheel steering, from Ardrishaig, and man, what luxury
