Sailing Around Britain: A Weekend Sailor’s Voyage in 50 Day Sails

During the summer of 2007, Kim C. Sturgess, then past his fiftieth year, undertook his first major sailing adventure – a voyage around Britain.Kim was a weekend sailor: he enjoyed club racing and several brief sailing holidays with friends, but he had never attempted a substantial solo expedition. Yet enacting a type of middle age rite of passage, and without significant planning, Kim undertook this 92 day travel adventure circumnavigating Britain during the worst summer in more than two centuries.While many cruising sailors would not contemplate a 1900 nautical mile voyage, he broke the expedition into a series of 50 day sails and one night passage, making it an achievable ambition for him, largely single-handed, and for many other weekend sailors who may dream of sailing around Britain too.This book tells the quirky traveller’s narrative of the voyage and visits to 48 towns. Kim shares his thoughts and struggles, recounting how easy it is for anyone to become an adventurer here at home. It is both a portrait of contemporary Britain and a story written to inspire the fifties “everyman” to leave the comfort of the couch and discover themselves and their home island.