For the final leg it's just me and Capraia, not even any wind!  Getting the timing right for favourable tides around Land's End and making it in time for Padstow's lock gate requires some careful calculation and a need to maintain a decent boat speed!

Passing inside the prominent Longships lighthouse, we take the inshore passage to make the most of the tide and save some time.  Past Cape Cornwall’s rugged coastline festooned with ruined chimneys and pumping houses giving evidence of the extensive mining operations that reached out far beneath the sea bed. As the coast followed a north easterly direction we make a bee-line for Trevose Head, Stepper Point and the Camel Estuary beyond. 

We just made it in time to get into the harbour before the lock gates closed.  My lines were taken by the berthing master who fondly remembered my father who was a Harbour Commissioner here.  Padstow is such an appropriate place for my last port of call - this estuary has always been my second home.

 

 

 After a couple of days of visiting favourate haunts and seeing family and friends we left Padstow for Milford Haven last Wednesday.  Again no wind so a long and rather tedious motor for 14 hours with only the dolphins for company. 

  

 

We anchored off Dale for the night, where the adventure started 16 weeks and 2020 miles ago.  In the cold and misty morning that marks the end of a summer adventure and the start of autumn we made our way up the Cleddau River to Pembroke Dock. 

 

By late afternoon Capraia is on her winter 'mooring'.  Apart from the starter motor that we replaced in Holyhead, a broken wooden cleat and some healthy wear and tear, she is in perfect health and ready, like me, for a rest!

This isn't my final post.  I will do a 'postscript' next weekend when I have had time to reflect on this adventure.