It's all over!

Back at work.

Food Glorious Food

Leftover food!

3 inches

That is how much the boat has raised out of the water after taking off all the spare food!

Who says that we over catered!

This is how much food is left after the trip!

Vanessa and I have challenged ourselves to see how long we can live on this!

Statistics

Timing has never been my strong point.

Only I could have decided to sail around Britain during the wettest Summer on record!

Add to that the fact that I missed: Abigail's A levels, the first British winner of the Tour de France and the greatest Olympics/Paralympics ever - and you get my point!

Never the less, I would not have changed anything and have no regrets.

A few people have asked me about the statistics of the trip, so here they are:

Distance: 2,392.8 nautical miles
Sailing: 198.5 hours
Motoring: 340.75 hours

Days at Sea: 70
Days smoke alarm went off: 70!
Days Captain Rusty went missing at food time: 70!
Days emergency light fell in water: 70!
Days Captain Rusty retied fenders: 70!
Days giving TLC to engine: 70!

Non sailing days:
Waiting for weather; 36 Changeover/Olympics: 20

Average Speed: 4.4 knots
(speed is always surprisingly slow - you could jog around faster!)

Moorings (sailing days):
Marina: 35 nights
Pontoons: 4 nights
Buoys: 15 nights
Anchor: 6 nights
Wall: 4 nights
Canal: 4 nights

Cups of tea: 1,000
Kettle boils: 1,500

Fuel: 170 litres
Miles carrying Jerry Can: Too many!

Gas: 6 x 4.5kg bottles

Weather Forecast Checks: Thousands

Shipmates: 14

Recollections of a crew-member

I have received the following email “It is now time to reveal my true identity … the mystery follower from Russia is none other zan me, Aleksandr, from Compare ze Meerkats.com.  Yes it’s true.  I haff been following you throughout your journey and I am pleased to announce zat ve will be adding to our cuddly toy collection, of, yes, zat’s right, Capitan Rusty…”

So that mystery’s solved.

But there are continuing mysteries such as: Where did Rusty go when it was time to cook?  How clean can one person get the bilges?  Is it possible that the engine contains Rusty’s DNA?   How many people in Britain live in marinas?  How can weather reports become compulsive listening?

The highlight has to be our visit to Whitby’s wand (sorry, pipe) shop.  Much talk of pipe-lore and “The pipe chooses the smoker”.  Incompatible pipes flew across the emporium, wrest from Rusty’s hand by invisible forces, as he stabbed the air with it to make a point.  But eventually he settled on dragon heartstring and elder and became a great wizard.  Actually I think I might be getting confused.

I’ll miss our evenings together watching quarter of a film (three times) on your laptop until it crashed.  I won’t miss how cold it was on my first week.  I’ll miss our conversations and shared experiences and stunning views.  I’ll miss hearing your anecdotes (mind you, once I’d heard them 3 times that’s probably enough).  But most of all I’ll miss us wrestling bare-chested on the cabin floor.  I think I’m getting confused again.

Amy (daughter) keeps referring to you as “Dad’s bezzy” when I say “When I was on the boat with Captain Rusty…”.  I really enjoyed my time on Crusoe Too and am glad to be numbered among the few.  Here’s to the next adventure…

What next?

A few people have asked me if I will carry on Blogging.

I am not really planning to do much, but I will put a final blog on with all the statistics from the trip e.g. Mileage, days at sea etc.

Watch out over the next few days.

I have been looking at the destinations of the Blog followers.

All the usual places as you would expect but I would live to know who has been following in Russia?