I had arranged to return the hire car at the airport as I had an early flight to catch, and it saved trying to find a taxi or bus at 6am.
The Azores are probably one of the most westerly points of Europe. Early flight Ponta Delgada, Azores to Lisbon, Portugal 2¼ hours straight across the Atlantic to mainland Europe. This was then followed by a 3-hour flight Lisbon-Manchester.
I had to stay overnight at Manchester and caught a mid-morning flight back to the Isle of Man.
I was very pleased by the positive reaction to my Facebook post both on my own account and the SFTD account received, I had not anticipated the level of engagement and Facebook was a good way of sharing at the time. These posts on the website have far more detail.
Would I do it again yes! I am sure it would be a very different experience; I would also like to do some of their other legs such as Azores – Brazil or even an Antarctic trip. Sailing into Rio de Janeiro sounds like an experience. In the European winter GS does three weeks trips from Argentina to Antarctica across the Drake Passage. I am glad I chose GS I had look at trips run by another company on former Volvo Ocean Race boats. The downside is they are stripped out race boats with no basic comforts at least we were reasonably comfortable.
You can thank Carole Quayle for persuading me to write this piece for the SFTD website, my wife Rosie for editing it and Will Bush for sorting out the publication on the website.
I should say a big thank you to my wife for being so understanding and letting me go, although Rosie enjoys sailing, she prefers more comfort than this trip offered. She was glad when I was home safe and sound. However, she did refuse to go anywhere near my suitcase of dirty washing some of which was over two weeks old, I did see her point of view!