The Stanleys Round Britain 2023 – part 1

Sailing around Britain – what a good idea
When we were due to retire in 2019, We talked about sailing around Britain. We actually retired at the end of April 2019; and went sailing the following week, leaving 7th May with the intention of visiting Ieuan’s brother in Whitby. This we achieved but we had lots of North and North East winds, it was very cold and we didn’t have a heater on the boat at the time. We got to Whitby and were happy enough to come home to warmer weather.
Planning started properly for the Round Britain Journey with the installation of a diesel heater on Shockwave, there was no way I was going further north without one.
Covid then struck in 2020 and no one could get to do the maintenance on their boats etc. We were very late launching so we decided to go to the West Country and went down as far as Plymouth finding it difficult to get a berth in any marina as everyone was out and about.
The next year 2021 again Covid stopped us getting the boat ready early and so we were too late to start the journey by the time the boat was ready, added to which I broke my wrist and thought I could sail with my wrist in plaster. We got to Littlehampton but found that it was too painful for serious winching, although fine for lifting glasses. We had a nice few days in Littlehampton, River Arun Sailing Club made very welcome and Ieuan managed to get some racing in with some club members there.
2022 came along and we had gathered all the Pilot Books, Admiralty Charts that we would need for our journey (many thanks to Keith Outram for giving us a lot of 2012 charts that he no longer needed). These were all updated to a degree from websites or other recent books borrowed from acquaintances
In 2019 we had taken weekly bags of dry food and tins and this worked quite well. We did the same again, making up 12 bags this time each of which included loo roll, dishcloths, pan scrub, measured portions of pasta, rice, tea bags, chocolate, other things, tins of vegetables, curry, custard and of course, more chocolate. The intent was to buy fresh fruit, veg and bread on route, but not need to spend half an hour on a bus holding more toilet rolls and other bulky things. It also meant if you ran short, you knew whether to go out specially buy or whether you could wait until the next bag was opened. Sufficient whisky was carried to optimistically reach the Scottish distilleries before running out. Beers and wines were purchased on route, Its not fresh, but a 28ft boat can only carry so much….
We did at a rough guide of where we thought we would be each week and where each of us really wanted to visit. We bought various USB cables to phone, Ipad, radio, razor, music system, etc. This worked really well once the cables were labelled.
We needed clothes to cover the normal two week sailing tropical to Artic holiday trip taken in the monsoon season, not forgetting a posh(er) set for visiting upmarket yacht clubs on route. Enough washing powder was measured out and taken to use a launderette every three weeks. A spare bed bottom sheet, hidden in the main (& only) big 2ft hanging locker completed clothing.

19th May 2022
Finally got everything on board, left the Sailing Club around 15:00 thought we might just go the East Head but the wind picked up as we left so carried onto Brighton, tides were right for getting in there and we arrived at 03.30am, a little stressful finding a berth in the visitor’s area but soon sorted. 56 miles. Brighton was having an Open Studios Event over this weekend so we went around some of the studios looking at the wonderful artwork and was so interesting to go into some of the town houses where they were being held. A few of our favourite Brighton pubs were also visited. Some of them twice. A swim and jacuzzi completed Brighton

22 May 2022
On to Ramsgate, as Dover is closed for remedial works; It should be open next year Left at 09:00 past the white cliffs, always good to see them, and had the sails up and the motor on, dodging the Dover channel ferries. We saw border Force patrols but no migrant boats thank goodness. The Coastguard on the radio asks you to inform them of any unusual activity in this area. Arrived Ramsgate just past midnight, with 85 miles done.

23 May 2022
Went in the Royal Temple Yacht Club in Ramsgate and admired the silverware behind big locked glass cases. Also had an interesting visit and tour of the underground tunnels. Planned for crossing the Thames next day.