“With a 35-ton fuel capacity and 5000-nautical-mile-range, she’s a transatlantic, Dutch-built, engineered and designed boat with all the comfort of travelling in your own apartment. She’s the perfect boat, and I will sorely miss her.”
Galena;
Sometimes it takes an entirely separate voyage just to reach the starting point of a planned expedition. For , the owner of the Vripack-designed Doggersbank Galena, it took two months to journey from Monaco where the boat is berthed to Scotland where his trip began in the summer of 2023.
“We took longer than we thought,” he says, listing the various pit stops, from the Gulf of Lyons in Marseilles and cruising Barcelona, to skirting the Spanish coast and crossing the Bay of Biscay. “It wasn’t intended that I should stop at three separate sherry-making vineyards along the way, but while you’re there why wouldn’t you?” he asks. “You have to take everything as it comes.”
Embracing the unexpected became the mantra of the trip, which focused on Scotland’s Inner and Outer Hebrides. Scotland’s islands and “skerries” soar into the hundreds and are characterised by volcanic landscapes, wild moorland, and long open beaches. “I wanted to see every island there is, both small and large,” he says. “I love architecture, archaeology, and history, so I visited most islands by foot.”
Travelling solo with his Jack Russel called Max and a crew of five (including his captain who had never visited Scotland or any part of the British Isles before), they navigated challenging terrain and 20-foot tidal falls, which meant there were few places where Galena could easily be tied up. Thanks to the Doggersbank’s size and capability, they were able to throw down the anchor wherever possible. “The boat was beautifully positioned for this sort of adventure,” he notes. “We’re not too deep, we’re not too wide, which meant we could easily access most places or just zip about on the tender.”
Shelter
The whisky connoisseur also ticked off a visit to every distillery in the Western Isles — “I now have a very educated palate in Western Highland malt whiskeys,” he enthuses — a few of which were accessed by throwing the tender rope up and entering straight from the boat.
While there were no real weather fronts to speak of, they still needed to shelter in Corunna on the western coast of Spain for 14 days before continuing with the journey across the Bay of Biscay. “I wouldn’t put the boat or the crew at risk,” he says , an ethos that also prevented him from sailing across the infamous Corryvreckan Whirlpool located between Jura and Scarba. “It’s formed by the powerful meeting of tidal currents against an underwater basalt pillar called The Old Hag and is where George Orwell accidentally steered his rowing boat towards in 1947,” he notes. “He was writing 1984 at the time and nearly didn’t finish it because he very nearly drowned.”
The most treacherous sailing happened in Mull of Kintyre, a rugged, remote headland at the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre peninsula where sets of currents make sea conditions infamously rough.
Successful adventures were found on the Isle of North Uist, where Hercules, the bear from the James Bond film Octopussy is buried, along with a few pre-Roman burial mounds and where the famed Whiskey Galore whiskey was hidden. Oyster hunting in Loch Fyne proved fruitful, as did foraging for kippers. “I phoned a smoker not far from the Mull of Kintyre and this charming lady met us on the beach with her son-in-law who came out to the boat in his waders. I can’t say nice enough things about the people.”
A memorable encounter with the harbour master in Lochboisdale pointed the Owner in the direction of a mutual acquaintance, the brother of a friend who owns his favourite London restaurant, Boisdale. “He was just returning from fishing and came for drinks aboard Galena that evening with his family.”
Being the only boat around
Friendly interactions with locals became a common occurrence, including for Galena’s Ukrainian chief engineer “whose English is far from perfect and who managed to communicate with a islander who spoke a very ‘gaelic’ English.” That said, being the only boat around and discovering places with no other visitors was, for the owner, a large part of the beauty of the experience.
“We went to Fingal’s Cave, a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides that’s known for its natural acoustics,” he says. “We arrived at seven in the morning, long before the tourist boats, so we had it all to ourselves and I played Mendelssohn’s Hebridean Symphony inside the cave for the crew.”
Walking across Iona through the mountains and cows to the deserted beach of St Columba’s Bay and cruising the Scilly Isles were both notable highlights. There were sightings of sea, brown, and Tawny gold eagles on land, and plentiful encounters with dolphins and orcas at sea, with Galena’s chef, Elena, proving more than proficient at catching mackerel for dinner.
Launched in 2013 and purchased by the current owner in 2020, Galena (named after Galene, the Greek goddess of calm seas) has taken the history buff on 40,000 nautical miles of adventures over the past five years. They’ve explored 64 Greek islands “and more temples and monasteries than most people see in a lifetime,” and circumnavigated Sicily “with my getting off every step of the way.” They’ve also taken in Croatia, Montenegro and “the whole of the Mediterranean.” Now listed for sale with Edmiston, Galena is poised for the next chapter.
“The joy of Galena, a Moonen-built mini explorer, is that it’s like having a floating RV that doesn’t care about the weather. She’s beautifully designed for every occasion – warm enough, cool enough, reliable and solid, and capable of withstanding whatever is thrown at her,” says the owner . “With a 35-ton fuel capacity and 5000-nautical-mile-range, she’s a transatlantic, Dutch-built, engineered and designed boat with all the comfort of travelling in your own apartment. She’s the perfect boat, and I will sorely miss her.”
