Watanga has been round the UK, some 2500 miles, that’s almost 5 times as far as we would normally travel in a season. Understandably she’s a bit tired now, and there’s a long list of things that need attention. The broken autopilot, the blocked pipes in the loo, the engine that badly needs a service, an exhaust leak, and a noisy bearing on the propeller shaft. a pulley block up the mast needs replacing, the deck light has gone kaput and the galley sink is leaking. That’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. Then there’s the normal winterising stuff to get done, cleaning and polishing, minor gelcoat repairs, the list seems endless, and in fact is endless, there’s always things wearing out, breaking or just in need of improvement.
As we have run out of holiday for this year, we have decided to get Watanga out of the water early, to give us a head start on the jobs in the off season. Hopefully this will give us better weather to do the external jobs before winter sets in.
Last Saturday we made our final journey of the year. We were meeting the Wessex KPA Chairman Richard Lee and his wife Louise and a photographer, another Richard, in Poole Quay Marina for lunch as part of the trip. After our arrival at Poole Quay, and a visit to the boat, we posed for some some photo’s, before dining at the Deli on the Quay to celebrate our successful trip and, thanks to you readers, the raising of some £1600. (at the time of counting)
The season ended as it began, a bright, calm day, with us gently motoring up the river Frome.
Yesterday, (Thursday) Watanga was lifted out and had her bottom cleaned.
And so the work begins.
The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin
4 Kidneys and a Wonky Leg 
What a fantdastic achievement. And your reporting was so matter of fact. Very modest. You should offer to go to sailing clubs and retell your story… fir money for wessex ppa. But give a bit more detail of the trials and tribulations rather than the blog. Which of necessity was matter of fact.. cause you were dealing with the trials and tribulations of daily life. Where to find gas bottles. Bread Nd butter. Nothing like fresh bread and where to find milk. In the navy… when you go out the far east 50 years ago. A milk van was on the jetty when we got back to pompey after 10 months abroad. No fresh milk at sea. Or in many countries in the far east… the guys would all head for the milk man and his milk. As the highest priority….so with you the task to find fresh bread and milk must have been very difficult…..well done to you and your good lady..cheers andy mullan .. True life.. moody 30. Port solent…
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Dear Martin & Louise,
Congratulations on completing your extended circumnavigation. I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs since completing my own circumnavigation and they have rather made me regret that we didn’t do the ‘extended’ version as you did. We just went round the island of Great Britain and didn’t do the Caledonian as well, as you did, twice. I regret not going to Orkney and up the Thames to London, but we decided at the outset that we just wanted to get round and that’s what we did. I have to keep reminding myself that most of the time on our circumnavigation I was worried that the weather would change against us and, when it was good, Mike and I just wanted to press on.
Incidentally, it is Mike and Jonathan, not Bob and Jonathan. Mike was a fabulous companion for the 60 days and, at age 80, he is an inspiration to me.
It sounds like you were unlucky with gear failures. Mike and I both had nothing of any seriousness during our circumnavigation, although since returning one of the split pins on my rod-kicker failed rather spectacularly at sea and the chartplotter failed. The Bavaria 32 is really designed for sipping drinks in cosy marinas, not circumnavigations, but ‘Bubble’ did a great job of looking after me for those 60 days. I couldn’t believe how well the engine coped with being run hard most days. Your stats suggest that, as was the case for us, you ran your engine for about 2/3 of the mileage.
I would love to go around again, perhaps the other way, but my wife won’t let me … she says that being on her own for 60 days once is enough for her. I want to explore the W coast of Scotland next year – not difficult from Bubble’s base at Fleetwood – not least because we had generally dull weather from Cape Wrath down to Mull of Galloway and much of the grandeur of the scenery was lost on us.
I don’t know if you have any plans for your collection of posts long-term. I am not sure what to do with my own. They represent a good deal of work, as must yours, so I don’t want to lose them. I’ve considered keeping the website going but that would involve some expense and I don’t think there are many hits now that we’ve completed the trip. I have vaguely looked at having the posts put into book form – I just want a few copies for myself and friends – and that is very expensive. The best I’ve found is http://www.pixxibook.com http://www.pixxibook.com/ which automatically takes the WordPress pages and puts them into book form. It’s all done online which is easy, but the downside is that you have little control over layout. For my pages each book would cost about £50.
You are so right about the far north of Scotland. I was surprised that several people we met had no intention of ‘going over the top’. It was a given for me that we should do that. We were so lucky with the weather; Dunnet Hd was like a mill-pond. I loved our anchorages at Sandside Bay and Loch Eriboll – the sense of remoteness and the fact that north of us was nothing for many miles were unforgettable, as was the nagging concern that if the weather changed suddenly we’d be on our own.
I hope you both feel as fulfilled as I did after completing the trip. It sounds like you do. For Mike and I it was all over too quickly.
Best, Jonathan
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