Jenny Whelan, a police detective and RYA Cruising Instructor, sailed round Britain in 2025 with her partner Pete, their Bernese Mountain Dog Svea, and an AI chatbot for troubleshooting.
The voyage covered 46 legs, roughly 1,800 nautical miles, and 130 days at sea, starting and finishing at Shotley Gate in Suffolk.
Every leg was logged on SailTies as it happened, building a full record of the route, distance, and time underway.
The trip is now a book, Dogsail: Sailing Round Britain with a Dog, a Chatbot and a Swedish Viking, praised by sailing author Tom Cunliffe as "a barking good read."
Jenny's sailing pedigree includes two Fastnet Races, the Caribbean 600, and three podium finishes at the Round the Island Race.
Jenny Whelan has been sailing since 1997, and her CV reads like a proper racing and cruising pedigree: two Fastnet Races (2019 and 2021, aboard an X332), the Caribbean 600 on a Volvo 70, and three Round the Island Races, finishing second in class each time. She's now a qualified RYA Cruising Instructor, teaching with the Met Police Sailing Club, and now works as a police detective on the Isle of Wight.
In 2025, she took on something bigger than any of it: sailing round Great Britain with her partner Pete, a sailing instructor of 20 years, their Bernese Mountain Dog Svea, and an AI chatbot they leaned on for troubleshooting problems along the way.
The circumnavigation ran across 46 separate legs, covering roughly 1,800 nautical miles over 130 days, starting and finishing at Shotley Gate in Suffolk. Every leg is on Jenny's SailTies profile as it happened: route, distance, time underway, and a note on how it went.
Their round-Britain collection: 1,768 NM, 46 legs, logged on SailTies.
The whole trip as an animated map video, built automatically from the voyages Jenny logged on SailTies.
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Up the east coast: Lowestoft, Wells-next-the-Sea, Grimsby, Bridlington, Hartlepool, Blyth, Amble, Eyemouth.
Round Scotland's east coast to Inverness, then through the Caledonian Canal (Fort Augustus, Laggan, Caol) to reach the west coast without the long way round the top.
Down through the Hebrides and the Irish Sea: Oban, Ardfern, Port Ellen, on to Northern Ireland and Peel on the Isle of Man.
Along the Welsh coast: Conwy, Caernarfon, Pwllheli, Aberystwyth, Milford Haven.
Round Land's End and out to the Isles of Scilly, then back along the south coast through Falmouth, Brixham, Weymouth and the Solent to close the loop.
The circumnavigation has since become a book, Dogsail: Sailing Round Britain with a Dog, a Chatbot and a Swedish Viking. Jenny logged the whole trip on SailTies as she wrote it, and the app gets a mention in one of the book's tips:
A Viking longship on the Scottish shore — one of the odder landmarks along the way.
“I logged it in full on SailTies as it happened, photos and all.”
Sailing author Tom Cunliffe called the book "a barking good read."
Jenny's instructor background shows in how she sails: methodical legs, sensible passage lengths, weather windows respected rather than fought. She's straight back to racing form too. This June she logged the Round the Island Race again, a fixture she's finished second in class three times.
Under sail, the Swedish flag flying.
This June she logged the Round the Island Race again, a fixture she's finished second in class three times.
