Adventures that start with a party are some of the best. After the formalities of saying ‘I do’ and celebrating with family and friends, Stuart and I were now married. Our honeymoon would be two weeks of sailing up the west coast of Scotland in perfect weather aboard our new-to-us Nauticat 42, Evolene.
On one of our early dates, I had assured Stuart that I could sail. However, it would be a few months before the extent of that ‘ability’ would become clear. Growing up on the east coast of Scotland I used to spend summer evenings and weekend days on the family’s 21-foot Pandora, Panache, which was a bit of a squeeze for a family of four plus a labrador. I loved helming and grew confident avoiding the bridges spanning the Tay and all the potential sandbank hazards on the Scottish east coast. Fast forward a few decades and our first holiday as a couple was a bareboat charter in the Stockholm Archipelago. The holiday quickly highlighted that my confidence did not extend to pilotage in confined water, or other ‘essentials’ for that matter,
