We spent the week in Aberdeen (pictured) doing what repairs we needed to do (in particular the navigation lights and auto helm!) and waiting for the strong southerly winds to ease. The week passed slowly but we visited a few pubs and the maritime museum which had everything from the history of Aberdeen port, fishing methods and industry, shipbuilding to the North Sea oil installations, as well an interesting display of photographs from Scott's Antarctic expedition. The forecast was showing that conditions would improve by the weekend, with the winds turning northerly and seas moderating. So we departed early on Saturday morning for our last leg of the voyage. Saturday brought light winds from the north and northwest with slight seas, such a change after the North Sea and having had the wind on the bow most of the time since arriving in Norway! By the evening the wind increased and skies cleared, so we had a wonderful nights sailing with almost perfect conditions and little traffic. Early on Sunday morning we made the decision to continue on to Hartlepool rather than stop in at Blyth as we would make it in for the afternoon high tide. It was a glorious morning and we enjoyed our last sail in the sunshine...probably the most enjoyable relaxing sail we'd had throughout the journey :-) It was a morning of mixed feelings from being happy and relieved to be almost finished to being a bit sad that the adventure was coming to its end! By 13:00 we were approaching Hartlepool and once we passed the headland seawalls we turned into the wind to get the sails down and lines ready. Approaching the lock we got quite a shock at how many people were waiting for us to arrive! There was much cheering and congratulations as we came in and tied onto the pontoon in the lock. It was an amazing experience and wonderful to see so many people there..thank you!!