Hurry Up...and Wait

Current Location: Shetland Islands, UK

Current Coordinates: 60°′″N 1°′″W ( just barely west of Greenwich)

Listening: "Steal My Sunshine" by LEN, 1999

Still in Lerwick and waiting on the weather to change for the better. The pattern so far has been to pull into port, do maintenance on the boat and then wait for a week for the weather to change. This is very frustrating, but you can't argue with the weather.

I'm spending most of my time reading my books for the M.A. program that I start in September in Florence. I'm also writing here, running on some of the best coastal trails I've ever seen, and taking as many pictures as I can.

On Sunday we went down to Sumburgh Head where there is a viking ruin called Jarlshof. I took lots of pictures, some of which I've attached below. Enjoy.

(Shetland Pony)

Last night Mike, Jack, and I went back down to the Douglas Arms for a pint and some celtic music. This was very neat--live musicians playing celtic music with everyone sitting around like it was someone's living room. It was fantastic!

We may have a break in the weather today after all. We've had nothing but S and SE winds at Beaufort force 5 and 6 since we've been here--the nautical equivalent of trying to drive into a brick wall. According to MagicSeaweed.com (our weather site) we're going to get some favorable winds for the next few days. Our plan is to get as far south down into Scotland as we can to make up for lost time. We hope to be in Cork by mid July.

Political trouble in Israel (pending conflict with Iran?) might change Gitana's course. Mike had originally planned to sail Gitana to Australia via the Med and the Red Sea but the latest edition of The Economist reports that Israel is rattling its sabers, threatening to invade Iran and destroy its nuclear sites. In Mike's words, being in the middle of such a conflict "would not be good."

This means that we might go into the Med only as far as Tunis, Tunisia (Northern Africa) where Mike has considered wintering the boat. He then would come back next year (perhaps with me) and head back out into the Atlantic past Gibraltar and then sail south down the western coast of Africa down around Cape of Good Hope. The passage from Cape of Good Hope to the western part of Australia is apparently very quick because you can catch the tradewinds.

Thanks again to all for reading and keeping up with my journey. I've talked to Mom and Dad back home and they keep telling me that all kinds of people are keeping up with it which is great. I'd love to hear from more of you! Drop me a line at evans2pm@gmail.com or leave me a comment on the page.

Most likely won't be back online until Saturday or Sunday. Until then.

Cheers! --Paul