Yes 411A I agree, under the circumstances you describe the F/O's hand flying skills will be required to be up to standard, I think that is what many of us have been saying here, up to standard - Yes but not at the expense of a comprehensive knowledge of the automation available and not to be practised if it will erode any safety margins.
Flying back to the UK in B767 from the Med without autopilot should not present any problems at all. Remember getting airborne from Manila once, after about one hour out we lost our autopilots and continued to Bahrain, (10 hours), without them, no problem, just very tiring and not as smooth as autopilots would have been.