Inverness 29 August 1337 UTC 1437 Local

Having travelled home to Scotland a couple of weeks ago I spent one night in Inverness before heading off to Norway for four days, Saturday in Inverness and Sunday in Edinburgh before another couple of days in the office and up to sunny Shetland for a couple of days. Business is still full on and I am looking forward to hitting the ground running when I close the loop of my circumnavigation of the world.

Before that however I have had to cross some major hurdles before being able to confirm that I can attempt to sail the last seven thousand miles alone.

The first thing was I had to sort some of the major damage and wear and tear to Rhiann Marie and make sure none of the battering we took between Mauritius and Durban caused any lasting damage. That work is still continuing in Capetown but should all be finished by next weekend.

The three main hurdles however that I have had to cross have been:

Getting boat insurance for the trip which took a little doing but is now in place. Three cheers for Bishop Skinner!

Making sure that the discomfort that my back has recently been giving me is not being caused by anything badly wrong inside my back (apart that is from the eight bolts and screws and rods and plate being in there in the first place). Personally I think the discomfort is caused by not being at sea …… Anyway it seems that it will take 12 – 15 months before the final outcome of my repair will be known and in the meantime I am certain that is no reason to hold me back from single handing my planned run up the Atlantic.

Finally and though I joke about this I don’t take it lightly – to satisfy my family that though their concerns are understood, sometimes in life you have to do what you have to do and when you gotta go you just gotta go. And I have to try this – I am sure I can push more. There were some tears but nothing a tissue and a stiff lecture couldn’t dry up.

So all these boxes are ticked and now I need to spend a few days making sure everything else that needs to be in place to give me the best chance of completing the seven thousand mile sail, is in place.

Maybe you have some thoughts about this, or the journey to date? You can send e-mails to me to rhiann {DOT} marie {CHANGE TO AT} gaelforce {DOT} net . This server is in our office. I cannot promise to reply to everyone, the blog readership is more than 10,000, but at least while I am here in Scotland I will be able to read your feedback. Some of you already have the e-mail address for the boat, and it is always nice to hear from you and I hope to carry on hearing from you, but unfortunately as it is a satellite line I cannot have an open e-mail connection to the boat for everyone for obvious reasons. However when I get underway we will monitor all the mails coming in – at least the supportive ones!  

Looking forward to hearing from you.