50:08.775N 005:03.019W
Alloro
Colin & Belinda Laidlaw
Tue 2 Sep 2014 16:41
We arrived in Falmouth at around 1600 today, 54 hours after leaving Ostend. Its great to be back here, but nothing compared to the excitement of seeing the Kent coast on Sunday evening - back in blighty (almost) yay! More standing waves around Dungeness, then we had a good run to Isle of Wight where we some stronger winds over tide, and bounced our way to Portland Bill. This morning was better with favourable winds, tide and sunshine - everything can be forgiven, when these three come together. What with all the bashing and slamming around we had been through, a quick glance aftwards determined that we were pretty close to losing our liferaft.. It was hanging precariously over the stern, as the cradle in which it sits was beginning to deteriotate. A length of cord, and a knife situated close-by, rectified the situation. We also lost a starboard light bulb in the pounding we'd taken but this was soon replaced, just about the time an SAR helicopter hovered overhead. Presumably ready to assist the striken vessel bobbing around in the rough seas.
We hit the "chainlocker" pretty much as soon as we tied up in Falmouth, but that was just to get the free wifi.... :-) The fact that we haven't had a great deal of sleep over the past couple of days means we're in for a cheap night. The weather looks ok for leaving tomorrow, so we anticipate being in Milford Haven thursday. Then starts the enjoyable experience of going through 1000's of photos, re-reading of boat log and remembering and arranging catch-ups with all the great people we have met. Would we do it again.............?