At sea: Monday, July 30, 2012:

We spent day tying up loose ends, settling our bill and packing. We had dinner in the Meridian which included pork and leek sausages with black pudding. We later met up with Karen Snaith in the Rising Sun.

Southampton to Durham: Tuesday, July 31, 2012:

Today it was breakfast in the Meridian where we enjoyed waiter service. I even met a man called Dave Hunter, a council chief executive, who used to know Pauline Elliott from Scarborough Council.

We disembarked and left the port by 9.30am to catch our bus back to the north. We called in at Burger King at first services and arrived at Washington services by 4.15pm.

We stopped overnight in Durham and we were just glad to be back on dry land after so long at sea.

Durham to Scarborough: Wednesday, August 1, 2012:

Today is Yorkshire Day so it seems appropriate to be heading back to Scarborough. We set off at about 11am and called in on Paul Knowles (aka Cuz Paul as he is Karen’s cousin). He seemed okay after his recent hospital visit but needed to take things easy.

We left about 1pm and were back in Scarborough by around 3pm. There were some familiar tunes during the journey – including The Snake, which was one of Karen’s favourites, and Beggin’ which was the most played song during our Amsterdam trip.

And once we were back we enjoyed fish and chips and mushy peas for our evening meal.