I'm sure you've all heard the events of the past few weeks but in no particular order, Portugal won the UEFA Euro 16, Australia finally elected a new Prime Minister, there have been various attacks all across Europe, and the UK decided to leave the EU.
Without underselling the other events, the UK's exit vote has caused considerable uncertainty within the UK and has effectively caused us to rethink our travel plans. Will the GBP rebound as a strong currency? Will UK passport holders still be able to travel visa free throughout Europe? Will UK boats be able to stay within the EU? Effectively, it lead us to decide now is a good time to bring Calypso back to the UK and sit tight to see what happens next.
With that in mind, I booked a Thursday night ticket to Lisbon, flew down to catch up with our delivery crew and also catch some summer sunshine. Lisbon was a completely different city to the one I visited in Feb... temps hovered in the mid-high 30s, cafes and shops were open and full to bursting, and the tourists were everywhere... I spent the couple of days prepping Calypso for the trip - filling the tanks, running up the engines, checking the spares, drinking beer, enjoying the sunshine, etc etc. With all that done and a quick test sail completed, it was time to hand over the keys. For me, this is when reality set in and I realised how hard this was going to be - having laboured over the boat for the past 6 years and every mile sailed with me on board, trusting someone else with the responsibility of bringing the boat back in one piece was not an easy thing to do.
Well, that's it for the moment.... Calypso is UK bound with the delivery crew and all going to plan, we'll be able to haul out in Chichester Harbour in a few week's time and work out what to do next....
Without underselling the other events, the UK's exit vote has caused considerable uncertainty within the UK and has effectively caused us to rethink our travel plans. Will the GBP rebound as a strong currency? Will UK passport holders still be able to travel visa free throughout Europe? Will UK boats be able to stay within the EU? Effectively, it lead us to decide now is a good time to bring Calypso back to the UK and sit tight to see what happens next.
With that in mind, I booked a Thursday night ticket to Lisbon, flew down to catch up with our delivery crew and also catch some summer sunshine. Lisbon was a completely different city to the one I visited in Feb... temps hovered in the mid-high 30s, cafes and shops were open and full to bursting, and the tourists were everywhere... I spent the couple of days prepping Calypso for the trip - filling the tanks, running up the engines, checking the spares, drinking beer, enjoying the sunshine, etc etc. With all that done and a quick test sail completed, it was time to hand over the keys. For me, this is when reality set in and I realised how hard this was going to be - having laboured over the boat for the past 6 years and every mile sailed with me on board, trusting someone else with the responsibility of bringing the boat back in one piece was not an easy thing to do.
Well, that's it for the moment.... Calypso is UK bound with the delivery crew and all going to plan, we'll be able to haul out in Chichester Harbour in a few week's time and work out what to do next....
