The last lap
Flinns
Terry/ Nicola Flinn
Thu 19 Jul 2007 01:58
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50:47.62N 01:06.84W Gosport
After 2 pleasant days in Falmouth, it was time to
continue on towards home. We decided to leave about 4pm on Tuesday 6th June,
planning on an overnight passage to Weymouth. The F4 winds steadily increased
throughout the night to F6/7, but fortunately they were right behind
us. With the genoa poled out and a large following swell, it was reminiscent of
being back on the ARC. We were travelling so quickly, that we arrived off
Portland much too early to make the tidal gate around the Bill and up into
Weymouth, so we elected to continue towards Lymington, just inside the
Solent.
It was during Nicola's watch that we suffered the
only serious breakage of the whole trip when the wind generator fell down
narrowly missing her. The supporting strut, which was bolted to the back
stay, suffered metal fatigue and everything toppled forward.
We arrived in Lymington at 6.30pm, and Tony,
our stalwart crewmember, took advantage of the excellent train connections and
made his way home to Camberley. We had worked well as a team, especially in
the extreme weather conditions and we are grateful to Tony whose
eternal optimism and cheery disposition made the Atlantic
crossing much easier for us.
Friends and family planned to welcome us home
on Friday morning, but we were now a day ahead of schedule. We took the
opportunity to prepare the boat for the final leg into Gosport and dressed
Flinesse overall with the ensigns of the countries that we had
visited during our trip. Of course, the weather deteriorated with lots of
rain and increasingly strong winds planned for Friday, but, during a
forecast lull in the wet and windy conditions, we made break for it
and arrived off Gilkicker Point at noon. We were greeted by a
welcoming committee of Bob and Marilyn Hodgson, Helen, Jenny and Andy, complete
with balloons, a banner and air horns. We both felt very emotional as we sailed
as close to the shore, revelling in the welcome.
We have sailed 16100 miles during the 14
months we have been away.and visited 19 countries as well as 62 other
islands .
Our adventure is now over and we have now achieved
our long held dream of completing a circuit of the Atlantic and Caribbean in our
own boat.
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