The Wilderness : Part 5 – No Straight Line

 Part five of The Wilderness. 

From Bangor to Inverness, this stage of the journey is shaped by delays, detours and unexpected challenges. A conversation about patience, persistence and learning that meaningful journeys rarely unfold in a straight line. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:37

So the Irish C was fierce. Where does that take you next? Where's the next arc of uh navigation? What's happening now? Where are we going to?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Well, so so I again, you know, I'd never intended to go to Northern Ireland. Um, wow. So but but that's where the weather, that the weather we had at this stage, so this is now kind of late June, early July. Um, we had a series of depressions, um, weather-wise, not in well, maybe we had them internally as well, during the what actually turned out to happen. But uh, there was a series of depressions, like one a week was rolling in, and when you get low pressure systems coming in, you get terrible weather in that part of the world. Um, you know, the weather comes off the Atlantic with just it just wrecks everything in its in its in its uh in its way. So with all that weather coming from the southwest, the the northeast of like the mainland of Ireland was was a great place to be. So we found ourselves in lovely banger uh in Northern Ireland, and we had to stay there for six weeks, um because waiting for weather, but also we had um some pretty fundamental issues with the boat um in that the batteries weren't doing very well, you know. The batteries that you use to power everything, uh they just weren't performing, they weren't holding charge, they were old, they needed to be changed basically, and ultimately they were. But then we lost our shore power. So if you can imagine a caravan that you plug into the mains, it's the same with a boat. So with dodgy batteries and a bloody um uh broken uh mains uh kind of system, we had we had no power on the boat. So this was the first time that I was faced with an issue with the boat that I had to fix. Uh and it was a big issue, you know. Well, it was for me because I knew nothing about electricity, Steve, but I do know that mains electricity and seawater sounds like you kind of need to know what you're doing, right? Um, and you know, this this this this kind of this idea that remember remember what I said at when well we you know we just call someone up and they come down the boat, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I'd called a guy on the south coast who was really well renowned around the Cornwall area, and I said, Oh, um, yeah, can you come and help us with some electrical issues, please? And he says, Yeah, yeah, yeah. What when you looking at? What when you're looking at? I says, Well, uh, as soon as possible. And he says, Well, I could do about seven weeks' time, and that was that was pretty much normal, right? I god, you could make a killing if you set up some businesses uh around the UK, I think, servicing boats, because there's not a lot of infrastructure there. But anyway, I was on my own in Banger in Northern Ireland and I had to figure out what to do, and I had to cut holes in the boat, Steve. I mean, goodness, at the time I was just in bits.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

What the heck, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Wow. Yeah, I was in bits. Like I I researched the hell out of this. Padstows Stew was on the phone. Padstow Stew was experienced and uh helping me out a bit, and uh yeah, uh so eventually I got all the bits that I needed, and I'd cut the holes in the boat, and then I realized that actually this new socket that I had to put in was too deep for um for the hole I that that I had, so then I had to make another hole somewhere else, and oh my god, Steve, drilling through the boat and doing all the wiring and all that. But it but you know, cut a long story short, I got it working. And I I remember when I when I switched it on and it and it came on, and I just thought, oh my god, oh my goodness great. I mean, because this was a few weeks in the making, right? And Faye had been recording me at the time, and it went onto one of our YouTube videos, and she'd slowed down me going and it was like some kind of primal screams. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

You've just won the Olympic gold medal, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

But you know, it it worked and it it stay it stays there to this day, you know. Um, so I mean, what a lovely place, though. Banger turned out to be a very wet place, but um, but it was a beautiful place, lovely northern Irish people. Yeah, um, and uh we we ate, I mean, there they had they had a um they had a fishmonger, but the fishmonger sells poultry as well. I don't know why, I've never seen that combination before. No, but they do. Uh so you could go in, you could buy some smoked duck breast duck breasts and some prawns, you know. And uh, I mean it was all so fresh and delicious and cheap as well. So we lived well there, and it's lovely getting to know an area, you know. When you when you're unexpectedly in an area for a for a few weeks, you get to know it, you know, and um they they there's a there's a time after a couple of weeks where like the same people that you walk past, usually dog walkers, they'll start to say, Oh morning, morning. Yeah, you're still here, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you start like a local, yeah. Like a local, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But then again, you're off, you know. And we got we got a weather window, and and then we were off to I mean, Scotland, west coast of Scotland. Oh, world renowned sailing ground, like always in the top five of people. You know, when people have got a sailing bucket list, you know, where do I want to go in the world sailing? Scotland, west coast of Scotland's always on there. Um so then it was up from Banger um up to up to Scotland, and we made we made um we made our way to Isla, the Whiskey Isle. Um right, okay. Port Ellen, Port Ellen there, um as the little port. And I mean, Steve, it was it was happy days. It was wet on the way over, and then we when we got when we got sight of Isla, the clouds dissipated, the sun came out, our hats came off, the coats came off, the sailing was just beautiful. Uh and it was like, wow, well you who pressed that switch. Um, and we got you know, we got we got into uh we got into Isla, and then it was all about going to see the distilleries, whiskey tasting, and you know, cruising, cruising around the islands of of of Western Scotland. Some family came to see us, and you know, my my sister and the kids stay came to stay for a week on the boat, and uh they were just into all the sail and stuff and they were wanting to learn everything, and they did did they did great, you know. It was just an amazing scene and learn. Um we had a few mishaps there as well. You know, we were anchoring in Loch Allen, uh Loch Allen, uh nice lovely lock up there just across the road from or across the sound of Mull from the Isle of Mull. And um the uh anchor got caught on something um and we couldn't pull it up. Literally couldn't pull it up, tried every trick in the book, it was 15 metres deep, which is deep for anchoring and too deep for free diving down to go and have a look. And the water was really, really brackish as well, so it was quite brown, you couldn't really see much. So I had to cut the anchor off. Cut the physically cut the chain off, leave the anchor there, um, which was a disaster because that means you can't you can't really, you know. I mean, I had a spare anchor, but not a primary anchor, it was a secondary anchor. So off we went, and um, I mean, I'd said to Faye, um, have you ever seen have you ever heard of what three words? Uh yes, yeah, what three words. So rather than using we use long longitude and latitude as sailors, right? Um but what three words is talk about making it like d idiot proof, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In terms of like you know, the the coordinates and that. So I'd said to Faye, can you mark the what three words? Oh, I forgot what the phrase was on the three words, but um you never know. And was it four months later, five months later, when we got to new back to Newcastle?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Spoiler, we did get yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, um, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

I got uh someone someone had watched our one of our YouTube videos where we'd uh cut it off, and he says, Oh, I'm a diver, I live in Lock Island. Do you know where your anchor is? And I said, I can tell you exactly where it is. And I gave him the three words. Steve, I'm not joking. 20 minutes later, I got a picture of my anchor and the chain that was attached to it in the boot of a car. He went, It's up. Wow, this is amazing. I know, and then and then so Faye's mum and dad, um, they love going up to the Isle of Mull, and they went up there and they were they get the ferry from Loch Allen over to Mull and they got the anchor back, and you know, we gave him a bottle of whiskey for his troubles, and he'd said to us, he says, it was there was an old anchor like jammed into the seabed with an old mooring right next to it, and your anchor was right in between the two of them. He says, You never would have gotten that out of there. Uh, it was a it was a quite difficult even for him, you know. Um, but he got it up and we got that anchor back, and that anchor is on the front of my boat right now, on my on the bow of the boat, to be technically correct. All right, it can't obviously can't be used again, but it's uh no, no, no, it is, it is, it's it is, yeah, it's used again, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

All right, you can reuse it. You know, it's just you'll place the chain. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, wow. I mean, there's there's a lot stands out in this story, but uh I'm actually thinking when back in banger, when you were in banger and you had this six weeks and you had big boat issues, I'm remembering that in sh that that um surveyor. Well, Mr. Johnson, this is only what we can see. It's only what we know. Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, so there will be issues, yes. There will be issues, you won't know yet, but there will be issues.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

There's a there's a there's a very um uh prominent kind of uh I guess it's a almost a proverb, I guess, in the sailing circle, Steve. And it's it's that sailing is fixing your boat in exotic locations. That's what it is. And anyone who's lived on a boat and gone sailing for a while go, yeah, yeah, yes, it is. That's exactly what it is.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Oh dear, yeah. Uh talk about setting expectation. Like you gotta know what you're getting into.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Yeah. I mean, thing for me, like if you're if you're like handy with tools and DIY and you know a bit of plumbing, a bit of electrics, you'll have a great time on a board because you'll be kept busy. But I'm an office jockey at this point, Steve. I got given tools by people before I'd left, and he says, Oh, you'll need these. Steve, I didn't even know what they were. Never mind how to use them.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

That would definitely be me. Uh, yeah, I get the minute I pick a hammer up, I get worried.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Not for anybody else, I get worried about well, I get worried about what damage I might do, and you know, my fear levels of getting it wrong are very high. So when of course they would probably say that experimentation is quite important. Um, you've got to have a go, and then you will eventually learn, right? Um, but then this getting into Isla and this Port Ellen, and then this whole physical act, but also thinking about it from a metaphor point of view, cutting the anchor, like literally, the only way we're gonna move is if we get rid of our primary anchor. I mean, that blows my mind.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah, it wasn't a decision. I mean, it took three hours of trying to get it out because it's not a decision you take lightly, it's a safety risk, you know. But it was a risk we had to take, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

But um, you know, you adapted and then it returned to you through your stories. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it's like like somebody who's some, you know, you sort of a uh committed diver, geeky, loves the challenge. Oh, what a great, what a great little challenge for me today. Uh-huh. Just hang on a minute.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Uh well. Yeah, that it was literally 20 minutes, if that.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

You you talked earlier about um, I think this is linked to this is obviously linked to um our primary sort of roots of our story, right? About what it's like for human beings, but in our case, men in the world and what we expect of ourselves, what's expected of us, obligation, responsibility, the need to feel like you want to keep people safe and provide. And um, but there's there's something about um you talked about the help, the kindness of strangers and asking for help, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Um, you know, and a lot of men, I mean women that can be the same, but a lot of men don't do those two things, right? They like and I can remember lots of moments where I've been away with Tanya when we had the kids and I've been struggling with something. And Tanya would say, Well, why don't you just ask the fella next door in the caravan or in the camp? Or if you're struggling a bit with your and of course, you don't want to my brain just goes, No, I'm not asking him. I don't want to look like I don't know what I'm doing. When I am, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm not gonna admit it. You know, um, and then somebody says, Can I help you there? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Well, and then and then and then and then and then sometimes you start to describe what it is you're doing, and then and then they'll offer some information that turns out to be a bit of a gem anyway, and you've gone this indirect route of getting the help, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

So the kindness of strangers and the just boldly asking for help, you really have lived quite a lot in order to move through this journey, right? You you haven't been able to do it on your own.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

No, no, definitely not. And that's and again, that is sailing, sailing etiquette is very much assist your fellow sailor. Right. Okay. And there's varying, there's varying degrees of that, obviously. You get, I mean, there's there's there's people now that you know with me, my my uncle Jeff, I call him, you know, an ex-royal navy diver. And I went diving with him the other day, Steve, with a with a with a you know, a former Royal Navy clearance diver, um, to to dive on my boat and do some work under the water and stuff. And there I am getting a lesson from a master. Do you know what I mean? Like you things like this, you just can't, you you can't buy you can't buy. Um, but they'll you know help you out with all kinds of things. Um so I think, yeah, I I mean we we got an awful lot of helping you know from Padstore Stewart we got an awful a lot more help when we were going through the med and you know through Sardinia and and stuff in particular, where it got particularly spicy.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah, we'll go on in a separate podcast to talk about some of the Mediterranean exclusive Mediterranean adventures. Um but I think the capacity for you to be okay with your ego doesn't get in the way. I'm just gonna ask for help here. What what should I do? Can knock on the door, can you help, please? Is there anybody that can help me? Um uh and of course the selling etiquette will also ask you to uh return the favour, right? Oh of course, absolutely um the other way. So these these Scottish Isles um that I must confess I've never been to. Um I keep promising to go. I've never been to the west of Scotland. Um I've been close when I was a kid with my parents, but we've never been out to the islands, and I've seen ex-colleagues to your ex-colleague Dale Robson, he's been on his bike with with friends, and I've I know some people who've gone swimmers, my open water swimmer colleagues have gone and done trips, and it is on my list of things to do, but you move through these beautiful islands, and then I guess you're trying to navigate. Uh do you go all the way around the north coast of Scotland? Is that where you're going?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Or do we do you we wanted to?

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Or do you have to try do you have to transition through the the canals?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Um the the the plan was to go um to Cape Cape Wrath is the is the kind of big point up there. Cape Wrath.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Oh my god, right. I thought that's what you said, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Okay, yeah, yeah. I mean it's it is it is it does it does it does get a bit unpredictable up there, but not so much in the summer, really. But the plan was to go was to go up there, but we'd spend so long on the south coast, and then we had all the six weeks issues in um of issues in in Banger, we had to adapt and we had to go through the Caledonian Canal in the end, yeah. Um which which was a a big shortcut, you know. Um because I tell you what, when we were still in the west west coast of Scotland, and then you were looking at how far it was to go around the top and back down to Newcastle, and then you looked at the time of year we were on, it was like shit, um, there's still a long arsed way to go here, you know.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

You would have had some trouble if you'd been with weather, right? It would have gotten even more, even more difficult. So this this is another yes, another interesting moment of of strategic strategic choice here, risk management. Hang on a minute. Well, we would love to do that. If we want to get back to Newcastle in a certain time frame, um, we're gonna have to do the Caledonian canal. Um uh no, I don't know the Caledonian Canal that well. Um aside uh piece of information. Um uh there is a chap that I met recently through my offshore wind adventures who's just swam up the uh Caledonian canal. Lying. Yeah, it was with 70 miles or something, Daphne did, or 100 and odd miles or something. Um wetsuit in a wetsuit, but over a few days. Um, I'll I'll dig that out for you. Um, his story, um, he did it for charity. Um, yeah, I met this guy um recently through the offshore wind growth partnership. Um bumped into him, met him in Edinburgh, he's brilliant. Um ex-professional rugby player, um, and did it for charity. So when you mentioned it, I was like, oh yeah, okay, I I have some sense of that. Um, what was it like going through the canal then?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Beautiful, really, really amazing. And also, I'm a bit of like an engineering geek as well, you know. I I love I love, I mean, just the marvel of how this thing was built in the first place, Steve, is just the story behind it. Wow, it's it's it's amazing, and and why it was built as well, you know, to kind of get the English fleet from kind of you know, yeah chasing the French more quickly and more responsive and stuff. But um, even though I don't think any naval ships went through it in the end, uh I might be wrong about that, but either way, stunning, and because essentially what you've got is locks, so natural locks, yeah interconnected with man-made canals. That's what you so they they used the locks where they where they uh sorry, yeah, the locks where they could, but then they then there was a man-made bit in between. Um, so yeah, I mean, uh as you can appreciate, you know, that was used for a very long time for transporting goods and stuff mainly. So there's lots of little towns and stuff that's just kind of shot up around it over time, and there's lots of little um like there's a curious little uh boat there that someone's transformed into a bar, a pub, and you can go in, it's quite tiny and packed. Reminds me of the lowlights in North Shields. It's got fire open fires, yeah. You know, it's got a piano there if anyone wants to play the piano and all that, and it's just got like the most eclectic mix of armchairs and chairs that they've just collected over the years to sit in there, and uh you just go in there and you talk to your fellow canal canalers, is that the word? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Yeah, where where does the can where does the canal pop out at the very end? Where does it take you?

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Inverness.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

So the last the last kind of waterway that you go through is Loch Ness. So we got to say we got we got to sail the length of Loch Ness, and Loch Ness was very unkind to us. We got 30 knots right down the throat uh going through Loch Ness, and that was that was that was difficult. And Fay's mum joined us for the transit across the Caledonian Canal as well, uh, just to help out with the lines because there's a lot of locks to go through. Um, and I think she's she was sitting in the uh in the cockpit while me and Fay are wrestling with all these sails and blah, oh my god, she must have thought, what's going on here? I think she might have been slightly blissfully unaware of like how spicy the situation it actually was.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

This is not what I signed up for. Yeah, I mean I I I know a couple of marathon swimmers that have swum the uh uh a lot all the locks. I think sure somebody's done lock nests. Um uh it's it's bonkers how far people can swim, but it it I mean we've seen what big lakes can do when it's windy, it's just like the sea, right? It just oh it's worse.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

It's with the waves, there are the waves are a lot worse, right? Yeah, yeah, because because it's not tidal, really, um, in that you're not getting a current going kind of to and fro, yeah, you know, a few times a day, the surface water of the wind becomes very affected by by the wind, and it picks it up to very steep waves, um, and there's and there's not a lot of distance between those waves, and it makes it very challenging to go in a boat and never mind swimming it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

So this is an interesting um uh we'll come to Inverness in a second, but this is a very interesting different experience, then. So you come to the canal and you make your way up through the canal and the locks, and I imagine that's a different experience to some of the sea uh sailing you were doing, but that and then are confronted with the mess of Loch Ness. Is that like a re is Loch Ness a reintroduction to um the sailing down the east coast? Is that is that warming you up for yeah? I'm not saying the Caledonian Canal was easy, but it um but I imagine it wasn't the same proposition as some of the things you had faced.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

I think I think comparatively it was easy if I'm honest with you. Uh right. I mean, there's negotiating the locks and stuff like that, but you know, intricate, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But um, yeah, the English Channel and the Irish Sea over the Caledonian Canal, I'd take the Caldonian Canal. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

On a bad day, but on a lock mess with lock mess was a warm-up um for what might be happening back out at sea.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Well, then, because you're getting into the North Sea after that, which is no piece of cake, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Right. So, did you stop in Inverness?

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah, we stopped there for a few days. Uh Fay's dad came to us with a new anchor that we'd had to order, and he put it in the boot of the car, and because we hadn't had the anchor back at this point. Um, but we needed an anchor, um, obviously. So we you know, we got he he brought us one up, had a lovely time there, and um it just makes me laugh.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

I'll just throw an anchor in the back of my car. I mean, how how much do these things weigh? I mean, they must it can't be light.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Yeah, it's 20 kilos, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Oh, okay, right, okay. Not as heavy as I thought it was gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

It's heavy enough if it lands on your foot.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah, which it clearly as it clearly has done then.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

No, it's been close though, bloody hell. It's nipped my fingers a few times, let me tell you about that.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

So it so did Faye's mum step off step off at this point?

SPEAKER_00 23:35

She did, she did, and she got back into the um back into the car and went back down that way, and then Fay and I left and sailed under the huge bridge. Um at Inverness, I don't know whether you've ever seen it, but whenever you sail under a bridge in a sailboat, even though you've done your calculations, Steve, about how much clearance you've got between the top of the mast and where the bridge is, and you and and you and you and your calculations suggest you've got way more than enough room. When you're going underneath it, it always looks like it's gonna hit.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Does it look close?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah, it always, always doesn't matter what the bridge is, yeah, it does. It's really weird. You take a deep breath, you do, but it didn't obviously we didn't hit. Um, and then we were then we were out into the North Sea, um, you know, going past Lossimouth and Bucky and all these other little um kind of harbour towns that we'd never really heard of. And I saw someone buy a deep fried pizza in a Scottish fish and ship shop, which I'd never seen before. Wow. Um but yeah, but uh yeah, we just we it was then it was just a you know, once we'd gotten into the North Sea, it was just uh we had the end in sight.