The Summer Isles fell astern. Cape Wrath lay dead ahead — and for the first time in weeks, a turn east.?
At just 19, British sailor Nestor Montagu is sailing solo around the entire coastline of Great Britain, without the shortcut of the Caledonian Canal. Behind him now lie some of the country’s most remote and exposed waters.
By day, an approaching squall pushed 25 knots across the water and chased him out of the islands. By night, Cape Wrath was waiting, Britain’s most feared headland and its north-westernmost point.
Sailing Solo
One sailor, one boat, and the whole of the British coastline.?
Nestor is nineteen, young enough that most of his peers are sitting exams, not rounding Cape Wrath alone. His route skips the Caledonian Canal shortcut and follows every mile of coastline instead, a passage shaped by tide, weather and self-reliance.
Weeks spent sailing north up an unforgiving coast. Then one turn east — the first since setting out, and the top of Scotland finally behind him.
— AROUND BRITAIN
BY SAIL
Into the Fog off the Humber
He approached one of Britain’s busiest shipping estuaries, where visibility fell to almost nothing and the horn sounded every two minutes.
It was a test of nerve as much as navigation.
What’s in the Kit Bag
From easy days on deck to the roughest stretches of the Atlantic, this is the kit built for every mile of the voyage.