Dave Marshall, crew 1st leg, currently on board, when written docked in Lerwick 27 June 2016
Up at 4:30 a.m., and when have I ever intentionally seen such an hour? Just down from my twice daily 6-10 watch, and a part of me is hoping it might be my last as we head into Lerwick on the final stretch of my part in this voyage. Maybe tonight a decent bottle of red! But that hardly seemed to matter up on deck in the watery (even for north of the Scottish mainland) morning sunshine when fortified with hot-buttered toast and vegetable soup both, quite remarkably, freshly-made onboard by John.
On this trip I have seen dolphins and porpoises and, I shall always believe, a sea otter. I am also prepared sadly to accept I did actually miss sealions and a puffin. Maybe one of the latter will still pop up.
These six brief days have rushed by and this is something I frankly never imagined I might do, not until the three days before departure when David suggested I’d maybe like to catch a train from London down to Bristol and meet Northabout. I can forgive the fact that I now look like Frankie Boyle, particularly since as a previously confirmed landsman I have avoided vomiting, or even feeling queasy for more than an hour on the first afternoon. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.