The Dark Expedition – preamble

It’s been over three months since I sailed with a group of wonderful people across the North Sea from Gothenburg to Orkney. I have no explanation for why it’s taken so long to get started on this account of the trip, other than, well, life and such. Short posts with tasting notes are one thing, longer texts take more time and energy. Time is mostly available in the evening when the kids are in bed, and by then energy is frequently sadly lacking. I also had a couple of thousand images to dig through to identify those worth editing and presenting. And then there was the question of form: Should I aim for something I could develop into a magazine feature? Should I stick mainly to pictures rather than text? Should I even write about the sailing here? This is a blog about drinkable stuff, after all, not sailing. And so weeks passed by.

A steady course is to be desired, both in sailing and in blogging.
A steady course is to be desired, both in sailing and in blogging.

But now, finally, I think I’m in the zone. I’ve decided you’ll just have to scroll past if you’re not interested in sailing. And since this is a blog I’ll be sharing my diary entries pretty much as I wrote them, feature articles will have to look after themselves. A little editing will happen, to clarify or add detail, but mostly I’ll share it as I wrote it while it was happening. Once at Orkney, the visit to Highland Park will obviously be the main focus, but I’ll pop over to a bay by the name of Scapa, too. And I’ll end with a bit of a summary of my experience and some wisdom gleaned from hindsight. And there will be plenty of pictures, but most will be published in a gallery at the end.

Are you ready? Part 1 will be published tomorrow, all things permitting, in the meantime you can enjoy the official video from the trip: