The final leg Monday 1st September 2020 – Ramsgate to Gosport – 119nm – 16hrs

We had a 04:00 start, with calm seas and a beautiful full moon, ideal conditions for sneaking across the channel. One mile out from Dover we saw two dinghies being towed in to the port by UK Border Force and another Border Force boat leaving Dover to pick up more people. At 11:00. we heard on Ch.16 two yachts reporting different sightings of overcrowded dinghies trying to beach at Dungeness. We had passed Dungeness four hours earlier and needed to be at least three miles out, due to firing ranges being active.
Not sure how those dinghies made it through.

It was good to see the chalk cliffs leading to Hastings and Eastbourne then around to Beachy Head. It felt like home turf because we had kept our first boat at Newhaven, but we weren’t tempted to re-visit as Gosport beckoned.

There was very little wind but hallelujah the sun shone brightly for a few hours. It was the first full day since leaving the Scillies that we have not worn either fleeces or wet weather gear, or both. Fabulous spirits onboard ‘Talavera’.

As we approached Gosport the sun was just going down, there was a beautiful sunset and the Spinnaker Tower was lit up with lilac lights, the ‘lipstick’ building close by shone its blue lights and the harbour looked great. As we headed into Hornet Artie knew exactly where he was and like a figure head posed on the deck as we came alongside.

We have now completed our 1700 nm passage around the UK (well almost we cheated and went through the Caledonian Canal), it has been a wonderful experience.

Today, Wednesday 2nd September, we had ‘Talavera’ lifted out of water to check the underside, all is well except for minor dinks to the rudder which we can sort out. We found some muscles growing inside the gunnel drain which will take some scraping out – but we’re up for a challenge.