Happy he who, like Ulysses, has travelled well…
Success or failure, I had to live this project.
I realize that the final budget has exploded, that the duration of the trip has greatly exceeded the time initially planned, that the navigation was more difficult than I imagined, that this boat turned out to be much less attractive in reality than in my dreams .
I regret that the weather did force us to use our motor more than our sails (156 h motoring for 61 h of sail).
I regret that Gina could not stand by me for this whole trip, conditions having turned out too hard.
But any adventure is good to live. We met great people, we saw other landscapes, we learned from our failures, we learned about the sea, about others, and, would you believe it, about ourselves.
We learned the importance of reaching out to the locals, asking them for advice.
We built memories.
The Irish Sea is not easy, yet people sail there.
We are going to work on the boat, upgrade it to our liking, improve it.
And, whenever I can, I will reach out and take the mooring lines of the arriving boat. Because I appreciated when others took ours, and because great friendships can be born from this little helping hand.