We had a 3 day antifouling cruise in late April to Loch Melfort to dry out then Ardnamir and Loch Craignish.
Late May/early June saw us head to Rathlin for the Maritime Festival via Port Ellen - fabulous Summer weather, some decent sailing and good craik. We were away two weeks.
Late August/early September a two and a half week cruise on the West Coast with some good strong wind sailing - particularly memorable was the run to Portree from Loch Kishorn where the third reef was required for the first time since crossing Biscay in 2007, and a fabulous high speed downwind run goosewinged with the Navik steering from Canna to Mallaig.
Then was just one short bit of paid sailing this year, a 3-day skippered charter for Alba that turned out to be a 3-boat stag party. Back sailing Chantilly, a lovely well-mannered and fun to sail 42ft Sun Oddyssey.
An end-of-season (or so we thought) sail to Jura for the music festival at the end of September completed our year on Fairwinds, but then there was a surprise - two weeks in Greece, cruising the Ionian from Corfu to Kalamata via a variety of fascinating islands and towns. First week was as crew on a Bav 46, then week two I was skippering a Sun Oddyssey 33. More strong wind sailing that week, but in shorts with lunchtime swim stops!
Just been out to Fairwinds today to check her out and do a bit of work on the gas system.
Next year's plans - assuming she is ready in time - include a Spring sail to the Algarve or further on Avy-J, our Morgan Giles 30, then fly back to Scotland to head North in Fairwinds and maybe across to Norway before returning to the Algarve in the Autumn to take Avy-J to the Canaries, where we hope to spend most of the Winter.
It's a good plan, but only a plan - a lot needs to happen to make it happen. I am hoping next year's report will include more sailing to more places.
Yourselves?
