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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
I couldn't even sit up in bethfrans cabin and now I had standing headroom. She was previously called pot & Kettle, now renamed JoJo. Took her down to Maryport at the end of april/early may via bangor and man. Had a 2 week cruise in the summer with her,man, ireland, islay up to ardfern and back via mok and mull of galloway. I used her to live onwhile working in cumbria,( I moved down to essex to my fiancees, as she was ill, tho my business is still in the lakes and I commute to work, I'm a wedding photographer) then in early October took her south bound for essex over the winter to sort out the various issues that come with an old boat left standing on the hard for years. She is currently in milford haven, as one of those issues stopped me dead, rust and crud in the bottom of the fuel tank. I had it cleaned but then that just resulted in leaks when the bottom layer of crud was removed. So may have to replace the tank there before I can go on round land's end and points east. She should be back in Cumbria this spring, possiby via the east coast route and through the cally canal and down the west coast.
