Reflection

It will soon be two years that I have been windsurfing round Europe. Before that I circumnavigated Britain, via Ireland and Northern Ireland. I’ve met many people.

The family of the sea have of course been accepting. The nationality of a seafarer matters little - because the sea would drown any. Every seafarer knows that the sea is bigger than they are. From this knowledge comes unity.

Had a few tough days lately. Tough as in with a significant element of fear. They are interesting. There is a pattern in they happen and in the response.

I never seek these days. They either can't be avoided, or happen because I've misjudged the challenges of the day: wind, current/tide, swell, coastline/water depth profile... Tough is usually either a struggle to get to land, or a struggle to make a landing.

There hadn't been a decision to make a prolonged stop, it's just worked out that I haven't got far this week. On Sunday I reached Etel estuary just before the Quiberon peninsular, and linked up with an old Swansea University friend Charlie Drakeford. Storm Ophelia blew through before I headed back out through the swells to get round to the protected side of Quiberon, and then into the Gulf of Morbihan, where I linked up with Charlie again. Calm conditions, storms forecast for the weekend, and an open house offer to stay until conditions improve now account for the stationary tracker.

Past the first of the D-day beaches. Their normality was perhaps what impacted most.

Emotions. Sadness: that we Brits were so willing to fall for the peace-time propaganda of Brexit. A pulse of anger too. And puzzlement: at the twisted priorities of those who seek to drive wedges with scant regard for Europe's greatest achievement: peace.

Those were my thoughts upon arriving at Juno beach, location where Canadian and British forces disembarked in 1944.

Long Standing Ambition - the Windsurf Round Britain book - is published. It is available now in paperback and Kindle editions.

The book has been written for quite a while now, but publication was slowed up by the need to include maps - and there is one for every day sailed; and some photographs - where I thought these added to the account and there was space to put them. So apologies for the delay, but the result is a book that is to my mind is now genuinely complete.

In May 2017 Jono Dunnett will set sail from the Norway-Russia border starting an attempt to solo windsurf the mainland coastline of Europe.

I seem to have been here before. Two years ago I announced via Facebook that I would be attempting to windsurf round Britain. I remember very clearly the moment of going public, and the trepidation I felt at that time.

The response then makes me less nervous of posting the news this time round, but there are still butterflies. The click-to-share is to all intents and purposes the click of no return.

A meeting with Rob Henshall - pioneer solo expedition windsurfer

Yesterday I met Robert Henshall - the pioneer of solo expedition windsurfing - a man whose existence I first became aware of over twenty years ago. He got a too-brief mention back then, in Boards windsurfing magazine, for having solo windsurfed Ireland. That feat stuck in my teenage mind, and became the foundation of my belief that windsurfing round Britain unsupported was a reasonable and feasible proposition.

The publication of a website is a concrete step towards backing yourself into a corner that is difficult to escape from. If you are reading this it means that I have taken the plunge - publicly committed to a challenge seemingly so large that I question my own sanity. It's good to ask those questions, rather than blindly stumble into this.