Fair Winds and Safe Passage

In June 2007 Andy and Linda Lane Thornton left their home port of Blyth in their 1973 Nicholson 35, Coromandel Quest, for an extended cruise around Scotland and perhaps a bit further. Five and a half years later they dropped anchor in Grenada having completed a circumnavigation.This is the story of the places they visited, the people they met and the joys and despairs when - as inevitably happens - things go wrong or break, such as when the starboard spreader fractured two days into a 1,600 mile passage. Over the years they have learned that if you need things fixing, do it yourself if you can or at least watch who is doing it for you.
About the Author: Linda Lane Thornton started sailing in North Wales in a Wayfarer in 1974, and then bought an Achilles 9 Metre, Red Marlin, in which she undertook a circuit of the North Atlantic between 1979 and 1982, visiting the Caribbean, Bermuda and the Azores on the way. After an illness, she sold Red Marlin and took up hillwalking. In 1992 she met Andy Thornton, the Compleat Yorkshireman - the place where "men are men and women are thankful". He is an engineer, specialising in electrical and electronic engineering. He got to love hillwalking as much as she did, and they embarked on the Munros, the Scottish mountains above 3,000 feet - all 287 of them. That quest took four years, during which they got married in July 1994, spending their honeymoon climbing the Cuilin Ridge on Skye, including the Inaccessible Pinnacle. Andy's first foray into sailing was a weekend in the Solent one October in a Dufour Arpège. He loved it. Several flotilla holidays in the Ionian Sea followed, and in 2002 they bought a Nicholson half-tonner which they re-named Layback after the start of their favourite climb, the Milestone Buttress on Tryfan. Between 2002 and 2005 they sailed over 5,000 miles on Layback, going to Orkney twice and then through the Caledonian and Crinan Canals to the Firth of Clyde. When in Stromness in 2005 they had been on board the Nicholson 35 Speedwell of Southampton and had come to conclusion that one of those would be just right for them. They bought Coromandel Quest, as she was then called, in 2006; she had been on the hard for two years and was quite neglected. They made some improvements and undertook some necessary maintenance. In 2004 Linda was granted early retirement and shortly after wards the couple decided to undertake some longer-term cruising. When they left their home port of Blyth in Northumberland, it was not their intention to circumnavigate the globe - that just happened. Linda and Andy have been married for 20 years so Coromandel tends to get the anniversary presents - new mainsail, cruising chute, cockpit cushions, solar panels