Safely home

From Faversham we sailed round Margate without running aground this time and stopped at Ramsgate where Steve took the train back to Mepal. Next morning early start and with the tide with us (we were doing 9 knots at time - with the help of sails and engine...) we made Brighton just before dark. As both marinas had showers I had 2 showers in 2 days! A record! Early start again on Monday morning with a bit of mist and not much wind. Selsey Bill was passed without trauma and the journey wasn't too eventful except that the exhaust kept overheating and threatening to burn some electrical conduits (!) - we have definitely decided to sav up for a wet exhaust system, and one of the pipes on the engine (water cooling sea water inlet) leaked then burst (!) - John valiantly and skillfully managed to patch it up so it wasn't too drastic... Arrived in Cowes just as a huge sand and gravel container ship was coming out, anchored at the Folly, wonderful!

Tuesday morning, after John took Ian to the Red Jet for his trip back home, we gently made our way back to our mooring. No flags but a police escort accompanying us: they were apparently protecting Blade Runner from protesters...

Back to reality now, putting the sails in the sail locker and other sad but sensible things needing to be done. It is lovely to be home though...