We have had a beautiful day. Thank you to the many people who have popped by to say HI, or ring or email and have made us feel so welcome back home. We are still pinching ourselves that we are here and with it raining and howling outside now we are delighted to be safely tied up alongside, home safely.

And so, after many months of sharing our adventure with you we can't believe we are really back home and it is all over. Thank you for following our blog and for lovely emails along the way, we hope you have enjoyed sharing our time afloat with us, living with us through our highs and lows and our plans changing from A – B – C – D – E.

Below are some highlights and then some reflections on a once-in-a-lifetime experience for which we feel so grateful;

Highlights:

Harry; Fishing! Time at the Vascao in the River Guadiana, anchoring in the Spanish Ria Arosa, visiting Islas Cies off Bayona, seeing whales and dolphins

Isabelle; spending time in Spanish Muros and catching the 10 mackerel, having my 8th birthday in Leixoes, visiting Gibraltar, seeing terrapins and dolphins

Bol; discovering the River Guadiana and spending time at the Vascao, seeing whales and dolphins, having a year together, visiting Lisbon Gibraltar and the Spanish Rias, meeting like minded people enjoying their own adventures, visiting the Normandy beaches around D Day

Jojo; seeing Harry and Isabelle adapt to life on board, our dramatic arrival in Gibraltar, everyone making the most out of a huge change of itinerary, discovering the River Guadiana and seeing terrapins in the Vascao, meeting lovely people along the way, sailing north with Fred and Hans. Normandy Beaches for D Day.

Lows;

The engine blowing all its oil out everywhere which then took all morning to clean (River Guadiana).
Trying to 'home school' the children (yes finally the truth!).
Seasickness.
Harry's migraines.
Prop falling off in Guernsey.
Engine problem in Ouistreham.
Finding the sailing harder than we had expected and needing to motor much more than we'd anticipated.

And now some reflection and humble thanks.

Firstly to Harry and Bunty for choosing this beautiful boat (bought in 1989) that has given us such a memorable and amazing adventure. When we set off last July we didn't know what lay ahead but at the very least we hoped the four of us could share experiences that will make us smile for the rest of our lives. TC has proved to be such a happy and comfortable home.

To Bol for all the huge work he put into getting TC ready. For the last three years he has worked tirelessly over evenings and weekends to get her safe and comfortable to take his family away. The list was awesome and overwhelming but everything Bol did was so carefully thought through and planned to enable us to have a very comfortable and safe time afloat.

Bol's brother Rich who put in an enormous amount of hours helping Bol with all the electrics, plumbing, hatches, copper coating, 'hold this and hold that' sort of jobs, weekend after weekend so kindly coming down to the harbour to help.

To TC's "Dream Delivery Team" Fred and Hans for helping sail TC back to the Channel.

To my parents, Robin and Shirley, for instilling in me a sense of adventure which I hope we have passed on to our children. I was brought up on the saying that "opportunity never knocks twice'"and hope that we have passed that onto Harry and Isabelle.

To Harry and Isabelle for giving us the incentive to get on and do something special together. We hope they will in time realise what they have done, they have been so very brave at times when things haven't been easy and we can only hope that we have instilled in them a nugget of adventure that will give them confidence to go on and do something interesting with their lives.

And Bol's thoughts;

The trip has been a great adventure and the highlights have been the people and places we have seen during the travels. I have enjoyed seeing the changes in the children's confidence whilst away and hope they will always enjoy exploring the world around them, so that they have a broad outlook on the world when they are older. They have done so well when times were tricky.

Our original plans were very optimistic and by slowing down I think we made the most of our very precious year together as a family and may have achieved more from the experience.

However, the biggest pleasure of the trip has been seeing what an incredible person my wife is. She is so optimistic and driven to make the most of every situation. Plus she is brave and gutsy and a wonderful co-skipper. With the exception of my seasickness I don't think there has been a single time during the year that we have not been able to solve any problems we faced and we have made the best of what we could do.

Even when exhausted , cold and wet, sailing in the middle of the night through a thunderstorm with strong winds and horizontal rain we have worked together as a team and she never complains. What a girl...

Lastly, we would also love it if you have read the blog regularly to let us know, because we have no idea how many people have been following us during our adventure. Any related thoughts or comments would be fun to read.

Fair winds and good sailing to you all.

Bol, Jojo, Harry and Isabelle Minchin
xxxx