Going Home - Day 1

Nevil Adkins

Claire visited Destiny before we had an after-party for the Zhuhai crew in the marina in Gosport. We had plenty of time to catch up and it was also great to meet her sister and son, Georgio. As the party wound up, Destiny started the long-awaited trip back to Cornwall with a short leg to anchor in the shelter of Hurst Castle, ready for an early morning favourable tide to take us on our way. First we stopped at the fuel berth in Gosport for 100ltr of diesel (£1.45/ltr) as the wind was virtually non-existent and it was looking like being a long motor. Leaving the fuel berth wasn’t ideal – the expected stern-kick in reverse didn’t happen and I ended up putting too much pressure on one of the smaller fenders until it burst and let us scrape along the jetty to put a small mark in the paint. I should probably have used a bowspring line – oh well, plenty to learn.