Come to think of it, I don't recall the idea of sailing Skerryvore from Melbourne to Glasgow as a conscious, identifiable descision. Skerryvore is a 36' Germaine, which is a round-bilge steel ketch designed by Cecil Boden, and was originally built in 1971 by Colin Margin in Woy Woy, New South Wales, Australia. The voyage was just taken as given, even though the 'how' subsequently needed a fair bit of consideration...and as it turned out also energy, perseverance, money, patience, trust, and above all a somewhat naive belief that everything would work out as planned. As it turned out, everything did go as planned...we just had to keep changing the plan!We purchased the boat in March 1999 shortly after it had completed a successful circumnavigation between 1994-1996 with the previous owners, Kim Wilson and Peter Anderson, and then spent the best part of 4 years restoring and refitting the vessel in Williamstown, Melbourne, Australia at the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria.
The voyage was ultimately successfully undertaken by our very good friends Kit
Johnson and Sally Pickles (Pictured above during a stopover in Singapore). The picture below was taken just before Skerryvore left Queenscliff, at the entrance to Port Philip Bay, on the start of the voyage in February 2005.The whole adventure was precipitated by a decision to move to Glasgow, Scotland where I'd been offered a post at the University of Glasgow in the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences. We were very sad to leave Australia and Williamstown, but also excited by the prospect of the chance to explore and live in Scotland.
The photograph below was taken on the morning of our departure
on 22 March 2004 (From left: Susan, me, and Ruairidh aged 3 1/2).
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