Day 22/23 Saturday/Sunday
Orford is a beautiful town with the most stunning castle. With my love of Medieval History I was spell bound and just loved my visit. Later we motored up to Aldeburgh, and had the most awesome fish and chip supper. But sadly no sleep. Very windy and a very big swell and we decided we could not endure that again so next morning, we motored back down river and Richard allocated us a mooring very close to our original mooring.
Day 24 Monday Suffolk Yacht Harbour 32 miles
We had a bit of a sail but finished up motoring to Suffolk Yacht Harbour where we re-fuelled but lost 2 fender socks in the process as we came away from the pontoon. It was an incredibly small space to get into and consequently the fenders got caught on the pontoon as we left. We were allocated a berth which again was a very tight fit and had supper in the lightship. Pretty non-eventful really!!!

Day 25 Tuesday
Suffolk Yacht Harbour to Queenborough 60 miles
Yet again we had the wind on our nose. We motored for 12 hours. Horrid, horrid, horrid.
Arrived Queenborough very late and in the dark. Picked up a buoy, had supper, got some sleep and left early next morning.
Day 26 Wednesday Queenborough to Dover 58 miles
We left Queenborough and yet again we had to motor sail which was surprisingly actually very nice. We rounded North Foreland and on our approach to South Foreland both Andy and I felt a sudden change in the wind and sea conditions. He (quite rightly) suggested dropping the sails and as we rounded South Foreland all hell broke loose. We had a 4m swell - yeah really - with 30 knots of wind. Stiletto was seriously rising and dropping and slamming. Any of you watched Trawler men? That was us. In all my time of sailing I have never experienced anything like it. We could see the entrance to Dover for what seemed like hours and hours but it just didn't seem to get any closer!!! When we eventually got close enough I called Port Control and requested permission to enter. They granted us permission and we made our way to the Tidal Harbour where we tied up alongside some lovely Eastern Europeans who had come around from Ramsgate a few minutes earlier only to be met with the same conditions as us and were equally as "shell shocked"
Day 27 Thursday
The forecast was rubbish. The weather was rubbish. We stayed put all day. It rained, and rained and rained. Sightseeing was not an option. We just hunkered down.
Day 28 Friday Dover to Eastbourne 55.5 miles 641.3 miles so far.
We motorsailed. Re-tracing our steps. The entrance to Eastbourne (Sovereign Harbour Marina) was exciting to say the least! Very narrow!! In fact, just finding it was a real challenge. Once in and moored up we had a wander around the whole marina which was very large, very nice with some exceptionally lovely properties. An early night in readiness for the final push home in the morning.
Day 29 Saturday Eastbourne to Gosport 62 miles 703 miles total.
Home. A beautiful day. A great sail. A perfect end.

The September weather was the best for 50 years. We so lucked out. The whole trip was enormous fun as well as a great shakedown for the Big Adventure. Taking stiletto up the Thames was a dream come true but we also learnt a lot about ourselves and stiletto, refreshed my navigation skills, reinforced our philosophy that if it doesn't feel right then don't do it. To trust our instincts and above all keep the communication channels open between us at all times.