Taking your cruising ground ...... where have you not been but want to go to ?

[johnalison]

The railway harbours were indeed used yachtsmen .In the time before marinas there used to be watermen or longshore men who for a sum would take care of your yacht .Places like Littlehampton,Newhaven,Weymouth Poole etc would have locals or club members who would look after your yacht.

At the time when you could buy a Yachtsman's Ticket that allowed you to take the train to one port and return via another.

 

[Wansworth]

Littlehampton has the station running parallel to to the harbour and certainly when I used the harbour there were berths on the West Bank accessible by foot and even mud berths. empty in the summmer months for longer stays .Only an hour from London a direct link by rail is available.Even from Chichester a short taxi ride takes you tothe station with direct link to London

 

[DangerousPirate]

Yes, but that means having to sail to a schedule and a destination, and we all know what happens when you do that.

You can always have a constingency plan. He made it work anyway. Since years now.

 

[Alicatt]

Orkney I have done, the Pentland Firth and the Caithness coast was where I used to sail my boat. Some of the west coast I have done with my father in our little boat, tow it to here there and everywhere, lots of Loch Fyne and Loch Lomond, a few days on Loch Morar, a circumnavigation of Lismore was the biggest undertaking.

Wife wants to go to Denmark, it won't be this summer as the boat will be on the hard over the summer getting some work done. We will see nearer the time, but there are plans afoot for a Broom meet-up in the Netherlands some time this summer, hopefully Hunter will be back in the water by then.

 

[ylop]

My in laws still can’t quite get their heads around the uncertainty of sailing.
“Where are you off too this year?”
*shrug* “depends on the wind direction on the first Saturday morning of the cruise”

Ah my in laws are similarly confused - although their geographic awareness of the scottish islands is so vague I don't think they are any the wiser when we get back. When we retire they will likely be even more confused - as the aim then is probably not to go back to our "home port" afterwards but to leave the boat somewhere different at the end of each season. I could imagine taking up to a decade to do more of West of Scotland then Orkney/Shetland, Norway/Sweden/Baltic, Denmark/Netherlands, Channel Islands and Scillies, Ireland. Temporary importation rules become a nuisance. Perhaps by then sailing to St Petersberg or Kallingrad will be viable as ways to leave EU for a day. Of course it might all be a dream - because it not only requires both of us to be physically and financially able but also aging parents not to create perceived responsibilities, nor any grand children to arrive, creating distractions!

 

[Snowgoose-1]

With regard to leaving your boat somewhere, local clubs can be helpful sometimes. Particularly when financially stretched.

Marina berths unlikely but swinging moorings possible. Over the years, I have had temporary membership of a few clubs .