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The Journey Is Home

On The Edge Of Britain: Plan S-Shetlands

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From A to Z- During the Pandemic you can't just have a Plan B. how about the rest of the alphabet- We took Plan S  Shetlands, and Britain's, most remote inhabited island-Fair Isle.












It is very important that  expedition history not be distilled to just those great man and woman like Magellan,  Edmund Hillary, Lewis  and Clark et al., but to the regular folk -like Sarah and Ed (Us) who  go out to do their own exploring and circumnavigation of the Earth and then blog about it-literature in a hurry. 

I love writing but hate the paperwork---so I take a lot of photos and videos-Show rather than tell. 

 This doesn't seem like a big deal- Travel is an activity not an accomplishment--until Global travel stopped due to the pandemic. Now not only is it an accomplishment, it is risky.  But that hasn't stopped us before. Therefore, it makes our travels and adventures even more significant because it is getting more and more challenging to spontaneously get up and go-

Our motto is Planning is everything but the plan means nothing- In other words it is situational. We have already had our flight cancelled to the USA this week, and rebooked with BA. Your best ability these days is flexibility.

Documenting these travels with pictures has the added advantage of it being true, and therefore you have to tolerate contradictions and see things from different perspectives. We really did travel around the world 7 times, and we have the evidence- all archived on FB, Instagram, Blogger and YouTube.


No matter where I go there I am. I can still look up at the same moon, stars albeit different hemisphere. It innately belongs to all of us, children of this planet.  I'm stricken by, what poet Diane Ackerman calls " the ricochet wonder of it all: the plain everythingness of everything, in cahoots with the everythingness of everything else"- Cosmic Pastoral.  

When your future version of you gets involved in the present version of you to get to better decisions...your life takes on a new optimal perspective. You "release your emergency brake" and when you land things start to Take Off. When you truly feel the emotions of the future, add gratitude, and it is as if you have already signed for it.


"People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things".Edmund Hillary

Perseverance - The Long Game


We rarely see the incremental baby steps taken when looking for enormous outcomes, but deserving enormous outcomes is mostly the result of a series of small steps, and the art and science of achievement of turning the invisible into something visible is the consequence. State it and Create it: I want to travel around the world was the mantra I told myself everyday as far back as I can remember. How did I do it...one port at a time, mostly by sea..


Direction Over Speed

There are 2 things that determine our life:
the quality of our decisions and luck. You cannot make progress without making decisions, and you will make those decisions over time with uncertainty. I call them bets.

Time Millionaires

Shetland reminds me of Alaska, a frontier outpost feeling combined with the Ohana-Aloha islands of Hawaii. Different climates for sure but basically a bunch of rocks in the middle of an ocean-and a lack of superlatives to describe the savage beauty. Oh yea, and add Norway in there because you somatically feel the Viking vibe here in The Shetlands.
For some context, Ithere are two videos below-the one of Ketchikan Alaska, the rainiest place in North America, and the other video is of Mid Summer in Norway at the top of the world in The Arctic Circle. 





The QUEST is in the QUESTION: So here goes: How soon can we cruise again? Just now as they say in SA.




What a Year-2020

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 2020-What a year!

Yellowstone National Park (WY not?), Fair Isle, Scotland, (Shetland) Dover, England  (White Cliffs) via Orlando (Disney) and South Florida.

It started with Christmas and New Years sailaways on Disney Cruise Lines in The Eastern and Western Caribbean. Then Covid hit, and travel changed forever...Yet we  managed to finish the year out on Britain's most remote inhabited island, population 45, taking physical distancing Uber seriously.


Yellowstone National Park USA


It was the best of vibes. It was the worst of vibes. We waited for 2020 to have that perfect vision.  Nobody could predict what they'd be seeing and doing this year- washing their hands, wearing a mask and social distancing because of the global pandemic. Normally, we would be sailing in the Norwegian Fjords, The Baltics or  through Alaska's wildlife super highway, Glacier Bay.Tis the season but all fleets have come to a grinding halt.

 


 DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP. or the goal of taking a vacation- ..You can't deny gravity, or the gravity of the situation, and traveling these days will never be the same. I'd have to get resourceful, resilient and drive somewhere long distance in an automobile. 



I rented a land yacht, a 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander (my protective bubble from the Covidiots who refused to take the virus seriously enough to follow some basics) and drove from Palm Beach to Jackson Hole, WY. Planning a road trip now is like trying to build an airplane as you're flying one ... data changes constantly..so I avoided airports, public transport and  took my chances in a SUV, and hit the interstate freeways. Three days (daze) later I rolled up on The Grand Tetons. I've sailed the seven seas, and visited every imaginable port of call, but being double-land locked would be a first.


Fair Isle, Shetlands  UK


Britain's most remote inhabited island. We flew in this morning. It feels like we are walking into a painting. Think Norway meets Hawaiian islands and Father Time and Mother Nature have a field day.

 

No man is an island, as John Donne wrote, but, north of the border, you can live on one. Scotland's. The Shetland's is good like that, with 15 inhabited ones to choose from. We are here in Fair Isle. Britian's most remote one. It feels like we are moving through paintings as the ever changing weather lights the landscape in unique and splendid ways.


Thanks to the popularity of the TV Series Shetland, we have had  it on our radar as places to visit this year.

 

Of all the 115 islands  in the archipelago,  just a few- 15- are inhabited ones. We are at to Britain's most remote island, Fair Isle.

 





First, Sarah and I flew into  Lerwick, Shetland's mainland via Edinburgh, Scotland.  Next, we got a PCR test for Covid (Think Positive Test Negative).

 

Then, we  followed-on to  Fair Isle,  population 55, now 57! What a place to self-isolate during the global pandemic! At first I thought Fair Isle was- the Faroe Islands (That's Danish and in the sub Arctic Circle). The Shetland Isles are located in the North Atlantic, Closer  to Norway than to Aberdeen. Go Vikings!

 

..

 FAIR ISLE Are we there yet? Being there.

There are two choices for transport to reach the island - take it or leave it.

The first involves a 20-minute straight run  aboard a 'puddle jumper, 7 seater fixed-wing plane from the mainland of Shetland –  a  twin engine prop plane- heart-in-the-mouth flight- up-close and personal with the pilot and his control dashboard.


 Thankfully, that link was not cancelled, due to fog, wind or just plain bad weather, then it would have been a ferry,  actually a converted fishing vessel, the only other alternative, a notoriously 2 hour rough crossing aboard the island’s ferry, the Good Shepherd IV.  Sometimes the  North Sea is even too rough for the ferry.

Living Of The Grid And Living On The Edges 


Fair Isle is not connected to the National Grid. Energy is generated in the island by the Fair Isle Electricity Company (FIEC) using wind turbines and solar and this is stored in a battery back up system. We brought Torches, flashlights, as there is zero light pollution or street lights.





South Lighthouse Josie and Dave's place












Disney Cruise Lines -Port Canaveral, FL/CARRIBEAN 

Castaway Cay
New Year (January 1, 2020) and a day in The US Virgin Islands. After  a mile walk around the deck we witnessed the sun rising against the Caribbean blue ocean. Spectacular. As we bring in the new day, still thinking about the souvenirs from YESterday.


Last night we celebrated onboard the Disney Fantasy.

When it comes to Disney royalty, you can’t get much cooler than Elsa and Anna. We started the evening with the movie Frozen 2 and its takeaway of ..when under pressure, do the next best thing, was noteworthy.

 


Later...

We all had our own fireworks display to bring in the New Year, Setting things on fire on a ship? Yep.

 





 2020 Trip Reports 











Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood Florida_Super Bowl Week


New Years Eve 2019 Onboard
The Disney Fantasy BC Before Covid



Alan Watts Says it best: ROLL VIDEO

Flight From Fair Isle To Shetlands

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Checking The Flock

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My Sheeple



Set in the middle of the North Atlantic, 38km (23mi) from  Shetland and 43km (27mi) from  Orkney, Fair Isle is as far away from civilization as it’s possible to get in the British Isles. Measuring barely five kilometers across and two kilometers wide, the island is home to a tiny permanent population of just 45 people. In fact, it’s the most remote inhabited place in the UK.



Sarah at The South Lighthouse

Malcom's Head






One of the flock



South Lighthouse Fair Isle

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 Lighthouses are not just stone, brick, metal, and glass. There’s a human story at every lighthouse; that’s the story Dave wants to tell.


Malcom's Head Hike Fair Isle

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Fleece Navidad Fair Isle

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