You would never cross the Atlantic Ocean by Boat

In the Summer before COVID,  my niece and her finance held a pagan Scottish wedding ceremony at my younger sister’s  farm in Maine.  The  gathering, complete with kilts and a traditional tying of the knot, was a warmup for the official wedding scheduled to take  place in Scotland the following Fall. Family and friends were to be invited.  Sitting at a table under a large banquet tent out on the lawn  one of the groomsmen with whom I’d been sailing earlier in the day  suggested over his drink that I should sail  over for the wedding. Most likely the suggestion was made in gest but it took hold none-the-less. One year later the official wedding went forward but, due to the pandemic, friends and relatives from the United States were unable to attend. However the thought of sailing to Scotland   remained and,  with the support of my wife and potential crew members, grew into a planned circumnavigation of the Atlantic. The tentative route is below. Various friends and family will hopefully join along the way. For the first leg,  sailing colleagues Brimmer Sherman and David Carstens and I will sail from Rockport, ME to the south coast of Ireland. The boat is the Lillian B, a 40 cutter rig sailboat designed for ocean sailing. Even with the Gulf Stream current and prevailing winds at our back, the crossing is expected to take at least  17 days at sea. For now, the crew is  hectic  with last minute preparation in the hopes  to  set out from Rockport  this  coming Sunday June 20,  the Summer Solstice for 2021. For those who want to follow, we’ll send blog posts along the way.