The middle of May and no blog updates for a while. You might suspect that not everything went according to plan. And you would be right. I am not on my way north, and here is why:

1. Boat: all the updates were installed. However, I haven’t quite gotten to grips with the Monitor Windvane yet. We’ve only had one day to try it and the trail was not exactly a success. Could be several things: a broken bit or I have hooked it up wrong (unlikely as I scrupulously followed the manufacturer’s instructions). Though it is most likely because I haven’t gotten used to it. To be continued. It'll be a while before 'Carly@ is a fully signed up member of the crew.
2. Insurance & finances: after lots of phone calls and e-mails it became clear that to get comprehensive insurance cover for a solo trip up north was bloody expensive/unaffordable. I briefly entertained the idea of going with ‘third party only’ but a trip to the dentist made me shelve that idea.
A trip to the dentist? Let me clarify - five days into a week of night shifts I had an afternoon appointment with the dentist: crown/root canal work. Long story short: I was his best patient ever. I had SLEPT through the entire thing. Now, if I can sleep through that the chances of being woken by an alarm after a couple of days at sea are very slim. And the busy North Sea is not a place where you want to fall asleep for hours on end.
I had also needed to replace my car late April, thereby severely depleting the cruising kitty (and some other kitties as well). Comprehensive insurance cover was now most certainly unaffordable and ‘third party only’ was no longer a viable option. Quite frankly, a large part of our personal wealth is tied up in the boat and if I lose her (and the loss is not covered by the insurance) I will never be able to afford another boat – ever.
I had had an offer to crew, but not for the entire duration of the trip. I could have gotten there, but not back.
3. Weather: already on a tight schedule, the weather needed to be exactly right. It wasn’t. Strong winds for the first week and a half, to be followed by no wind at all.

In short: I had run out of time and money even before I set out. The plan to take the boat further offshore whilst we are still working has been proven to be unrealistic. As long as time or deadlines are an issue, it is never going to happen. Reality kicked my teeth in.

So, what did happen? Read on.