Sails & Trails has been in something of a stasis since the pandemic changed all of our lives. However, we’ve just done a trip that has rekindled my love for multisport group adventure.
After sailing from London I met up with my friends at One Inch Dreams in the lovely seaside town of Ramsgate at the mouth of the Thames. From there we sailed up the east coast of Great Britain. We sailed night and day, the team of Alex and Johannes learning to sail along the way. The classroom got a bit too wild as we sailed through a gale with 37-knot winds and had to shelter behind Spurn Head as suggested by the helpful pros at VTS Humber. From there we picked up some more crew just outside Edinburgh and then cruised right through Scotland on the tranquil Caledonian Canal.
Once on the west coast of Scotland, the lads of One Inch Dreams were no longer students on the sea, but world-class masters at home in their domain.
They quickly scaled the largest of the imposing sea stacks known as MacLeod’s Maidens and ran a 90-meter slackline to the main island of Skye. The impossibly cool Alex Schulz walked the line while filmmaker, Johannes Olszewski, managed the cameras and flying robots. It was here we also met up with our environmental guru and traveling partner Katie Tunn.
There were many little adventures along the way as we dealt with adversities such as the gale and a rope wrapped around our propellor. I’ll elaborate on some of these in future blog posts.
Dave