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After a marathon 3 day sail from Cuxhaven leaving at 10.30am on Thursday 28th we returned all the way back to Gosport arriving at 09.00 on Sunday morning.  A trip of 446 miles completed in 70 hrs with three nights at sea.  In five months we have visited 12 countries and covered about 3500 miles.  An amazing adventure.

The first part of the journey was very unpleasant bashing into a 20kt westerley wind all the way from Cuxhaven to the top corner of Holland for 24 hours.  However as forecast as we turned south along the Dutch coast towards Den Helder the wind eased and went round to the NW giving a good sail.  Near Den Helder we turned SW to head towards Ramsgate.  An interesting night passage crossing the very busy shipping lanes off North Holland with Di and I doing 3 hour watches.

The wind as forecast kindly went to the East and we had a wonderful sail across the North sea during the day on Friday including a BBQ on deck.  Landfall near Ramsgate at the top of the Goodwin sands late afternoon was uneventful but we could not see land as the visibility was only 1 mile.  We quickly sailed down the inside Goowin passage on the tide and slipped past Dover ready for the final night passage along the south coast to home. 

An easy an uneventful night passage motor sailing as the wind had dropped with three hour watches we had to keep the engine revs down to conserve fuel.  At surise we were making the final approach to Portsmouth harbour slipping through the Looe Channel at Selsey bill just bas the tide was turning against us.  

Finally we arrived at 09.00 at the Royal Clarence Marine displaying the 12 courtesy falgs of the countries that we visited France (terretorial waters only), Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Arland Islands (part of Finland but independant State with own flag), Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.  A wonderful trip seeing some remarkable places,

 Throughout Hollie has been amazing coping so well with the long sailing passages she has grown up a lot increased even more in confidence and I hope has hugely benefited from the experience.  Di has been fantastic looking after us and making sure we got to see most of the sights and places en route.  As always she has been a source of inspiration and support – love her to bits.

Finally our friends as always been great.  Jim and Rona after returning to Bembridge in the Isle of Wight in their boat on Saturday night sailed back over to Gosport to welcome us back and together with Chris and Chris we had a Chinese take away on Sunday evening aboard Rebel.

We have a few earlier bits of blog to fill in a and some final pictures to post. We will do one final entry with a quick summary and then sign off.  Thanks to all those who have followed our exploits.