10th July 2012. Our Last Day.

Jean Says: Boo Hoo

The last breakfast before the end sounds rather drastic, but we climbed over onto Violet the super boat to have our last breakfast with the Owens. Bella Rosa (the wonder boat), and Violet (the super boat) had been rafted together for the night on a big fat white mooring buoy that could hold six boats if necessary, so we were told. Two boats was enough we thought.
We didn't want to leave until just after midday because we wanted to get to Lymington at about high water. Mum and dad were coming to meet us, and it would be safer for them to negotiate the ramp to the pontoon if it was relatively flat.
We left Chichester harbour entrance in South West winds gusting to 24 knots.
We knew that we would have to tack regularly to get down the Solent, and it could take longer than we wanted to get to our home port. We zig zagged our way across the East side of the Solent, and as we rounded the estuary at Cowes, the winds increased. It was becoming a force seven with wind against tide. We'd lost sight of the Owens quite some time back, and left them a message to say we'd have to put the motor on to get a more direct route, otherwise we would arrive in Lymington very late.

The Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth.





It was grey, very blowy and raining sporadically, but this was our final leg after twelve weeks of continuous travelling, passage planning, big decision making and dramatic changes of scenery.
Mum and dad were on the pontoon taking photos when we arrived in Lymington. With a bit of effort climbing over the guardrails, they came onboard to celebrate our grand finale with champagne. An hour later, we went off to The Ship for dinner, and the Owens came to join us.
It's going to be sad to say goodbye to Bella Rosa for now. She's a great boat and a major team member.
This won't be the final jeannbobroundbritain blog. We'll be doing a final reflection blog in a few days time.

Bella Rosa dressed up and back in Lymington.