“The Coldest Winter I Ever Felt Was A Summer in Scotland”

“The coldest winter I ever felt was a summer in Scotland.”

Borrowing from the well-known line attributed to Mark Twain that the coldest winter he ever felt was a summer in San Francisco”, we have been feeling much the same, that is until today!  Finally.  

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’ve been going through my own personal heat wave for a couple of years, and I don’t mind saying, the cooler temperatures this summer have been a welcome… ahem… change.

But too much of anything can become tiresome and I have been ready for a break in the clouds which came today.

But I digress… my last post was more than 6 weeks ago so I must back up a bit to bring all of you to Scotland.

We arrived in Hampshire, England (on the Southern Coast near Southampton but further down the Hamble river and with an early plan to be off the dock no later than the 1st of June, we had to re-adjust our expectations very quickly. There were several reasons for our delayed departure including planned maintenance that wasn’t yet complete, but sadly and most significantly, our kitty Pratt was not well. We took him to the local vet and discovered that he was dehydrated and having kidney issues in addition to being thin and not at all himself. The passage without us had taken a much greater toll on him than we expected and at his advanced years, he needed a lot of TLC to get back to himself.

Watching our beloved Pratty in such a state was hard on all of us.  He was affectionate and happy to see us, he slept and cuddled with us and even purred, but he wasn’t eating.  

Thank God, a ton of love and cuddles, some yummy food, and something to encourage him to eat more, and he is feeling so much better. He is playing, hunting, and purring nearly constantly – he has regained most of his appetite and we have all had the best month with our sweet kitty.

The extra time in Hampshire was a reminder that even though the schedule largely had to be scrapped, we are already “here”. This is our life and taking more time in one place or another is the very reason why we are choosing it. Mostly we just need to remember that whatever we see or do not see, everything is exactly as it should be.

Once we managed to get underway, the first leg was a gentle one and we ended up in Weymouth. We first came here aboard a cruise ship but now here in our own boat, we preferred to just hang on the hook and get comfortable again with our floating home. The highlight of this stop was the visit by this charming dolphin. Usually we get dolphin visitors while underway as they like to swim and play in the bow wake, but this big boy came once we had the anchor down and stayed for about an hour. He just wanted to say hello to the humans! What a treat. Since we have heard that dolphins on a journey portend good luck, we took this to mean that we were going to have a blessed summer!

Next stop was Dartmouth, UK.

We originally planned to stop here in 2019 but an unexpected weather window opened, and we passed it by. It is such fun to have another shot at a place and this time, we planned the whole week around it.

In the South of the county Devon, Dartmouth is a charming town with the Royal Naval College here and 2 castles boasting a storied history. One of the most enjoyable days we spent here, we took our own dinghy down the river Dart to Dittisham, then grabbed the water taxi across to Greenway House, the summer home of Dame Agatha Christie. Donated to the National Trust, the house is still exactly as she left it, with writing paper in the typewriter and lovely bone china in the cabinets. She and her husband were avid collectors and evidence of this hobby is all around the still furnished home. The entire property left an impression with the woods leading down to the charming boat house which was the set of one of her more famous books, Dead Man’s Folly. Also significant of this property is the filming of some of the Poirot episodes, one of her most beloved characters. We all loved Dartmouth and we wish we could have stayed even longer. The harbor is small but still hosts yachts of every size and color. One morning we woke to discover a Hartigruten expedition ship with 500 passengers aboard. As often happens, Alec and I, enjoying our morning coffee got curious. Before long, we were booked on an expedition heading to the Arctic Circle for Christmas and New Years 2023/2024. We are already planning to be freezing cold in London, so what better time to try to see the Northern Lights? This is something both of us have been dreaming of and we now we have a plan to experience it!

Next stop… Plymouth. We visited Plymouth via rental car last time we were in the area, because of it’s significance as the launch place of the Mayflower in 1620. But it was a totally different experience being here on Gratitude. We may have passed it up all together given that we love Falmouth- and we would probably have preferred to keep going. 2 purposes dictated this stop. The first is our tickets in hand to the Harry Styles concert. We had planned to be further along at this point and even considered bringing Gratitude to Cardiff, Wales or at a minimum, Bristol. We obviously fell behind our schedule before even leaving on leg one, so we opted instead for Jack and me to take the train and Plymouth was the best place from which to depart. Unfortunately, Alec stayed behind with Pratt. Given Pratt’s recent trials, none of us felt good about leaving him alone again. While we missed Alec, I think he enjoyed the peace and quiet for a night and Jack and I enjoyed a “Mother-Son” trip which was fun. The concert was wonderful – Harry brought it! and we had a fun time traveling there and back on the train.

The second reason Plymouth was the stop is that our dear friends from Sicily on the SV Bella were finishing their Europe – Caribbean – England circuit and we were eager to meet them. Jack, Stan, and Ted played together like they only parted company yesterday. I’m so grateful to live in a time when we can all stay in touch with loved ones via Facetime and texting, which the boys have been doing since they met. It was as though no time has passed and we can look forward to a winter of getting together for museum trips and perhaps West End theatre. But the moment that Jack and I got aboard, we were off on a 2-day passage to Belfast, Ireland.

For those who don’t know, Northern Ireland (of which Belfast is apiece), is part of the United Kingdom and as such, there are no customs/immigration formalities when traveling within the UK boundaries. Because we are saving up our EU/Schengen time for the Scandinavian countries, we would have skipped Ireland if not for this factor. But since we could visit Belfast with none of the penalties to our 90/180 – and since we missed the whole East coast of Ireland on our last visit, it was worth a stop. Of course, every decision is made at the expense of other stops not made but we hope to make up some of these next year as we head back across to the US. More on that later…

Belfast was an interesting stop – not the least of which because of its most recent “troubles”- to which they euphemistically refer- when talking of the terrible conflict lasting approximately 30 years and ending in 1998.  This was a conflict that was all over the news for most of our lives as children, yet we still didn’t seem to know very much about it.  Essentially the conflict was between the Northern Irish Protestants who wished to remain loyalists to England and the Catholic Irish Republic of Ireland (most of the rest of the country) who wanted to remain autonomous.  More than 3500 people were killed, leaving scars on both sides of the divide.  Our guide talked of hearing bombs landing continuously as a young father with children in their beds.  We did see some buildings with damage and our guide showed pictures of streets which were completely leveled during the conflict.  I wish we could travel in time and show these poor people photos which we took during our time in Belfast.  It seems to be a place where the party never stops and lots of guys hanging out on their bachelor parties.  I’m sure the streets experience their share of dustups given that even pubs with restaurants had a bouncer at every door, but during the early day light hours when we visited, everyone was still happy.    There is a heavy drinking culture here with alcohol permitted while walking down the streets and evidence of alcohol use and abuse was everywhere.  A near shocking difference from the very limited drinking in Turkiye.  Certainlypeople wouldn’t walk down the streets with a drink and clearly intoxicated.  

The Titanic Museum was very cool! We went to a Titanic Museum in Halifax also but this one was completely different. Given that the Titanic was built in Belfast and was truly the pride of the men and women who lived and worked on her here, she was as much a part of the community as any passenger aboard. The design of the building was stunning and demonstrated how she would look if she was standing on land – MASSIVE. Most of the exhibit focused on life of creating her and what life would have been like to work in the shipyard where she was built. Of course, one was lead through the launch and the subsequent sad ending that was Titanic’s.

We were sad to be leaving a short 4 days after our arrival, but we are still trying to get back on schedule with the first vital date we have in Bergen, Norway when my sister Kelly arrives. Until we meet that deadline, it’s going to be GO! GO! GO!

Originally planned to be the launching point for train trips to Glasgow, and Edinburgh, Largs on the West Coast of Scotland in North Ayrshire was recommended by friends and would have worked out better had the weather cooperated. The rain was pouring from the time we arrived and that alone would not have been a problem, but the weather forecast for the next 2 days was to be more of the same with very high winds forecast on day 3-6. Such is the life of a cruiser – all plans for Glasgow and Edinburgh scrapped, we needed to take advantage of the weather window and leave the next morning, otherwise risk not being able to get around the Mull of Kintyre – a peninsula which is known to be treacherous in unsettled weather and with stiff currents forecast to run counter to wind, we needed to get moving. It was a painful decision to make and one we hope to remedy sometime this winter with a train trip. Still, we did see the Largs Pencil Monument, we learned a bit of the history dating back to the 13th century with a battle between Scotland and Norway. And finally, I must write this here because someday Jack will read this and learn where the lovely bone china tea set came from. I have a love affair with bone china teacups. I have looked for them in antique shops all over and I remember spending the better part of a day in London searching 1 after another secondhand shops for these lovely cups with such a dignified purpose. I know that sometimes my poor husband thinks I am crazy but when I saw this lovely set of teacups with creamer and sugar bowls and even a teacake plate, I had to scoop them up. We carried them and the groceries the 2 miles back to Gratitude in the rain and someday, I’ll be enjoying tea in our home in Florida and I’ll have a chuckle remembering this day.

We spent 12 hours on passage to our next stop, an anchorage at CarsaigBay where we spent the night after several unsuccessful attempts to set the anchor, then got another early start for Tobermory, on the Island of Mull, Scotland.  

While doing the newly revised calculus for our schedule we decided to skip Oban as well. Missing all these spots on our planned trip is both heartbreaking and a tremendous relief. Sometimes it is more important to miss several stops than to try to squeeze one more stop in at the expense of the sanity of everyone on board. I feel like I have written about this 100 times already and yet, here we are entering our 6thsummer of cruising on Gratitude and STILL, I haven’t gotten the lesson! But this time, I didn’t hold quite so tightly to the plan so I must be getting better. I was far more comfortable with taking a black marker to cities and islands, preferring a longer and more relaxed stop in the days leading up to Jacks Birthday. So, skipping Oban and the south of Mull, we decided to head to Tobermory which was higher up on the dream list. By heading there directly, we would be able to stay there for 4 full days, and we could do some hiking and get provisions for the special 4th of July birthday on board.

Tobermory was a perfect spot. We were able to make all of Jacks favorites for his birthday, we went hiking and relaxing, and it was the perfect stop to enjoy some down time. An incredibly busy harbors on the Isle of Mull, this must be a sailors dream because the marina was full every night and empty most days. When we moved from the mooring field to the marina, we did so right in the middle of a regatta, and though it was raining, I have never seen people have more fun!

Im going to leave the post here as the Caledonia Canal deserves much more room than I have left here. But the next leg is going to bring us to the Western side of the canal and Ill take it from there.