Judging from experience this will be the final blog of the trip. The excitement of fresh food and decent sleep normally detracts from the importance of writing a blog once we finish a long passage.

We are currently about 30 miles from the Needles and its looking like we will be tied up in Hamble mid afternoon. However this last 24 hours hasn�'t been without issues. We have been running the engine now for 30 hours and it decided it wanted to rest, well the alternator did. The pivot/mounting bolt which you rotate it around when tensioning it sheered off flush with the casting at about midnight. So we are on a major energy save and the charging of laptops, listening of radio, use of chart plotters and AIS, cabin lights oh and not to mention the fridge, have been banned. It�'s a real shame as we managed to pick up TV reception yesterday. It was fantastic reception and I managed to watch the whole of the film The Core, the end of the Ladies British Golf Open and Sherlock Holms. Anyway, we don�'t have enough battery for those sort of luxuries anymore.

We also had a stray Vang. Its amazing but it seems that stainless steel split pins have a fatigue life of about 22,000 miles. Both split pins on the vang, top and bottom have both straightened them selves or broken and fallen out during the last few days. It make we wonder if there are any others on the way out, perhaps holding the mast up. Anyway, Elmarleen seem to be taking the opportunity as best she can to add as many more jobs to the job list before we finally get home.

The final thing that has happened over the last 24-48 hours is a really weird phenomenon. It seems to affect our speed for 6 hours in ever 12. We are currently sailing at 6 knots but the SOG only reads 3.5knots. I am not exactly sure what it is but I think it has something to do with the sun and the moon and might be called tide. Anyway, I could really do without it right now as we sail past Portland Bill.

It funny, Tam and I have been so looking forward to getting home over the last month. Pretty much since leaving Bermuda. We have actually quite enjoyed the weather getting cooler and odd rain shower. However, now we are actually in home water, just around the corner from the end of this journey we are less keen. This is British summer and its cold. I pulled the thermals out a couple of days ago and I haven�'t even taken them, even during the day. Its rained and been overcast for the time its taken to sail along the south coast too. With Tam starting work again in a couple of weeks and me hunting for jobs the idea of heading South again and off for Barbados for Christmas is really quite appealing.

So that�'s all folks. I hope you have enjoyed the show. Both Tam and I have a suspicion we are the only people reading the blogs at the moment so our apologies if they got boring and office life was more interesting. It hopefully won�'t be too long before we catch up with you all and can telly you all about it in person.

Will, Tam and Elmarleen