We’re back on plan. The reason to even think about bringing the boat back – by whatever means – is at a minimum delayed – we’re off to the Baltic this year – and excited by the prospect!

We arrive in the UK on April 27th and head straight to the boat. Hopefully the boat will be in the water having had new bottom paint applied and having been scrubbed and polished! With luck we’ll be able to prepare everything else – bend on sails, a few minor boat chores, etc.,  and provision in just a few (3?) days and then head out, weather permitting into the Irish Sea towards Scotland.

We plan to sail around the Clyde and Argyll regions for the month of May (before the midges come out!) and then through the Caledonian Canal – to see if we can spot the Loch Ness Monster.

We’ll then cross the North Sea to Norway and plan to spend a few days in Stavanger before heading south into the Baltic.

The Ocean Cruising Club is holding a 2 month long ‘come and go’ cruise through the Baltic, right up to St. Petersburg – so we’ll end up visiting Norway, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Russia and Sweden. It’ll be nice to have other familiar boats around us as we sail this fascinating area.

On the way back we’ll either go a southerly route; back through the Baltic and the Kiel Canal in Germany to Amsterdam and then to Southern England, Channel Islands and Northern France – or – we’ll go a northerly route through the Gota Canal across Sweden and then over to the Shetlands and back through Scotland’s Hebridean islands.

The end of the year will see us park the boat somewhere in England – or possibly sail her back to the US through September and October – via the Azores and Bermuda.

It’s nice to have a plan – even knowing that it’ll never be fully followed!