Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Attributed to Mark Twain (wrongly).
What possessed me to decide to sail round Britain?
This year, 2021, Jo and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.
Part of our honeymoon was spent in Scotland, at a place called Doune on the Knoydart Peninsula.
To celebrate our anniversary, we thought it would be a good idea to return to Doune. And, I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could take the boat there?
And then I looked at the map and realised that if I sailed one way up to Doune, I might as well come back the other way, making it a circumnavigation.
Once this idea had taken hold, I realised that there were a few more milestone dates coming up. It's been ten years since I started my current job - a record for me, and one which made me feel better about asking for such a lot of time off. It's also twenty years since I passed my yachtmaster exam.
Oh, and next year I will have a birthday ending in zero.
All of which adds up to a great excuse to do a lot of sailing!
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