Thurs 16th April
I had a restless night, waking up to check the time, even though I’d set an alarm, as I was worried I wouldn’t wake early enough to get the bus to the airport. Woke at 5am and got the 6am bus from town, to arrive with loads of time at the airport. Had two cabin bags so could go straight through security, which was seamless, and settle down to some breakfast. Glasgow airport was an easy place to navigate and had everything I could need. The plane journey was on time and smooth, and really interesting to see the wind farms out at sea, quite a way off land, the work that must go into assembling them and connecting to the mainland.
When I arrived at Southampton it was, again, a smooth transition as I had no luggage. I had arranged to meet my friend Simon for the day, as he now lives down here after moving from Birmingham, so he collected me from the airport drop off point. We popped back to his where I could wash some clothes and have a shower while he went back to work for a couple of hours. Although I love the vanlife, it was nice to have a bigger space to chill in and spread out. We decided to pop out for dinner and settled on a place in Hamble-le-rice, a nice little village to the east of Southampton, which I later learned was a top spot for sailors to frequent. We had a fantastic dinner at Thaiger Lounge, a Thai restaurant I’d highly recommend, and a couple of games of pool after, before Simon kindly dropped me back at the boat, ready for a good night’s sleep before all the action of the sailing trip!