THE END of SAILING FLORENCE around the world_ - Ep.172

This is the final leg of our seven-year circumnavigation around the world. We have sailed Florence over 50,000 miles across the world's oceans and we are about to arrive right back where we started in Portsmouth Harbour so long ago. When we left we were waved off quietly by a few family members but there's been far more interest in our return. Although we are sailing back to our home port we really don't know what to expect when we arrive. Sailing around the world had been our dream for many years before we set off. Once we left it became our entire life. Only now as we return to familiar waters once more can we put the last seven years into perspective. So we left Chapman's pool this morning fairly early to catch the tide past and we are now approaching the Isle of Wight and the Solon which really is home for us. It's where we set off from. It's also where we spent so much time sailing ourselves and we're just approaching the end of the Isle of Wight which has the iconic needles, these white chalk spines that stick up from the sea and then we're going to be going through the Narrows at Hearst. It's a really narrow gap at this end of the Solon and the tide really whistles through there so hopefully we'll get there just in time before the tide turns and we'll be able to get through without being thrown back out by the tide. Sailing up and down the channel up and down the coast of the UK really is about timing things for the tides and I can really remember when we left here on Florence because neither of us had sailed overnight just the two of us before or just on deck by ourselves and as we came out of here I was on watch Amy was down below sleeping we came out at 4am to catch the tide out and as we came out of the Solon which for me because you know this is where I grew up was kind of a safe area as we came out of those Hearst Narrows I remember being really really scared actually because we were just out into the open out to sail off down the channel and then off around the world and that I think it really did hit me then about the responsibility of just just being us on board the boat there's no one there to pick up the pieces if we get it wrong and yeah I can remember feeling very scared going that way going this way I feel excited to to get back home I feel sad that it's the end of this circumnavigation really I'm excited that we've got more adventures to come it's a real mix of emotions I guess but the one that I don't feel is that I don't feel scared which is nice oh yeah actually I do feel scared because in a few days time the BBC are coming to interview us about our circumnavigation and that quite frankly is terrifying even though we've put out these videos on YouTube the idea of talking to the BBC on camera is terrifying I'm just really happy to actually be able to see the iconic landmark of the Needles because obviously on the way out it was pitch black and I was down below sleeping we didn't actually do much sailing on Florence around the Solent we literally just prepared her and left so although Matt grew up here and has spent all of his life sailing in the Solent and I I lived down here for 12 years before we set off the majority of our sailing was dinghy sailing and racing in the Solent area so yeah it feels feels strangely new to be coming in on Florence so this is Hearst Narrows and we've still got the tide with us so it's all good and we can make our way up to Newtown Creek such a beautiful day for sailing just flat water and enough breeze to sail which is perfect Portsmouth Harbour is actually an incredibly well defended naval port and so there's a whole load of old ports around the Isle of Wight and along the shore here so defending this narrow entrance into the Solent which leads up to you've got the Hearst Castle spit with Hearst Castle on this side and on the other side on the mainland side there's another fort which would have just stopped any ships from sailing in through here the gentle breeze carried us almost to the entrance of Newtown Creek before the tide turned fully against us this beautiful natural harbour on the Isle of Wight is one of the few shouted places in the Solent where you don't have to pay to anchor instead a voluntary donation to the national trust who manage it is encouraged as we approach our homecoming in Portsmouth we know that our life will change this will be the last place that we will live aboard Florence at anchor for at least six months as from here it will be all marinas and boatyards as we prepare Florence for the next adventure so we set the anchor and settle down to appreciate the simplicity of life on the hook and the tranquil movements of the wildlife in this national nature reserve so this is officially our last sail of the circumnavigation we're currently in Cowes and we've got a whole about 15 miles to sail across to Portsmouth harbour I'm trying not to think too much about the fact that this is the last sail of the circumnavigation I know it's just closing this chapter and we're going to be heading off again next year but when I think about the fact that we're soon going to be moving out of Florence to refit her and stopping sailing for the season that makes me really sad but also I'm so excited to see so many people that are coming today there's there's people that we haven't seen since we left and that's been seven years ago now so yeah it's going to be a bit of a crazy day crazy day today we don't really know what to expect we know that a lot of people who've been following and supporting us for a number of years are also coming today so it's going to be great to meet them I think it's going to be a bit of a whirlwind and now I'm probably just going to have to remind myself to breathe many times throughout the day but yeah this is it the culmination of seven years sailing around the world time to go I'm a little bit terrified to be honest why terrified well because we usually send these videos out from some small remote location in the world and we rarely meet large groups of people today we have no idea how many people are coming to welcome us home and the thought of standing in person in front of a large group of people and being the center of attention is unusual and nerve-wracking for us Florence it's a solid dream welcome back Matt and Amy fantastic achievement we're um half a mile from Prince Consul point so look forward to sailing that's Portsmouth with you over fantastic we look forward to seeing you thank you very much we're uh just sails up and we're just approaching Prince Consul Florence it's a solid dream yeah we can see you looking fantastic in the sun what a day for a coming home over yeah we got pretty lucky it could have been a lot worse for the weather we had a few days ago so someone is smiling on us give you guys a great day over welcome home welcome home uh standing by off Prince Consul waiting for you guys and looking forward to accompanying you there it's fantastic thank you all for coming out and joining us it's uh it's uh becoming quite emotional this is nuts this is nuts there are so many people that have come out to see us there's people that have been following us online there's friends that we haven't seen for seven years who have come all the way out here on their boats just to welcome us in and yeah i'm actually almost tearing up i didn't think i'd feel like this but i actually feel really emotional just that so many people have come out uh it's really making it into a very special day already i think it's going to be really hard not to be just constantly bursting into tears today i'm feeling really emotional i'm already struggling not to cry to be honest just hearing some friends uh chat on the radio and yeah crazy day i'm not even going the right direction there's another boat coming yeah it's not just us that's feeling a little overwhelmed even our chart plotter can't cope with the number of AIS targets around ah start gun for the slow boat race yeah hi guys great to see you it's pretty emotional seeing you all out here and we're going to start making our way down from princeton towards port savannah where it's nice this high winds we can all uh not worry too much and but it is absolutely amazing to see you out here thank you so much for coming out such a beautiful sight seeing all of these boats out sailing together we've got an absolutely perfect day for it couldn't really have i've got any better weather tiny bit more breeze possibly but yeah that's about it there are lots of old planes flying around lots of other people out sailing in the solan yeah there's a lot going on today except for the planes flying around it would be pretty much silent because yeah we're really sailing how nice is this how crazy is this look at this everybody come out to see us this is amazing oh look at that yeah that is an oyster heritage 37 the exact type of boat that florence is thanks very much let's come up to the bow because we're motoring so the engine's a bit noisy but oh what an amazing day i've been able to relax enough just to hopefully try and enjoy it but it's incredible the number of people that have come out to say hello yeah thank you thanks to everybody for making the end of this chapter such such a highlight to the voyage it's funny how arriving back is oh it's so much more emotional than the day we left it felt very surreal when we left portsmouth i remember we we sailed out through the solent in the in the dark and we just said goodbye to a to one friend who was based in limington the night before and then we just kind of slipped our lines and and slipped away so yeah this is a very very different different feeling i've also just put up our flags of the countries that we visited and doing so always makes me feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude to all of the place amazing places that we visited and the people we've met the spinnaker tower in the background yeah we're nearly there but we're actually too early so now we're slowing down to come through the lot through the entrance at the time we said because i know my dad is waiting to take a photo and i'm normally too early for it this is crazy there are even more boats just joined us now look at this just look at this like all right i've closed my mind and everybody's got flags up and yeah it's brilliant absolutely brilliant amazing day what a way to end the trip oh yeah this is this is really special really special really special have you seen these guys thanks for making the trip out back into portsmouth harbour that's it we're back here we're coming past the spinnaker tower we've got a fleet of boats behind us my dad and a bunch of friends are on the on the round tower they've got the union jack out flying as we came past a bunch of boats hooting their horns and oh i mean i'm just done i'm blown away i'm overwhelmed it's absolutely just mind-blowing everybody comes i just can't believe it can't believe it's so emotional master you probably should have told harbour control that we were coming in with a fleet of boats but uh we honestly didn't expect it to be this big yeah very sorry king's harbour master we won't do it again so now we're into the harbour entrance and we're soon about to pass castle castle because i'm from the north which is where matt actually learned to sail whether it's a castle or a castle it's i think the most beautiful part of portsmouth i'm from yorkshire so i learned to sail on the north sea it feels really strange coming back into portsmouth harbour because this is the area that i learned to sail i raced dinghies up and down this narrow muddy creek it's very muddy at low tide and these posts that mark the creek used to be some of our racing marks we'd race around them and so it does feel really strange it finally feels like we're really coming home to me because this is where i learned to sail when i started when i was six years old and we're about to come back and actually sail back past my home sailing club we actually debated for a very long time whether or not we would finish the circumnavigation by just quietly creeping in to portsmouth harbour or making a day of it like today and to be honest with you i've been more nervous about today than i have about say our recent north atlantic crossing but already i i'm just so glad that we decided to do this and i'm so grateful for everybody that's come out and and really helped us celebrate yeah closing off this chapter it's it's awesome at this point we had no idea of the welcome that was still to come at the marina entrance and just how many people had gathered on shore to cheer us home oh thanks very much my old sailing club had this sign made oh and as we passed over the club finish line they fired the finishing hooter and we could hear the cheers and the barbell ringing it was hard to keep our emotions under control it only dawned on us just how many people had come out to welcome us home as we got closer to the lock entrance and saw the sheer number of people lining the sea wall there as we waited our turn to enter through the lock and tie florence up for the final time in this circumnavigation we were a little tempted to turn around and sail off again in part so that the adventure would not end but also to avoid having to dock florence under the pressure of hundreds of watching spectators and a bbc news crew congratulations what's it like to be back how would you summarize the last six years the best way to summarize it is that i want to turn around and go again after tying florence up inside the marina we made our way to the bar to meet with our friends family and patrons arriving here today has highlighted that although we'd left portsmouth harbour and sailed around the entire world just the two of us on board we've been far from alone instead there have been thousands of you following and supporting us along the way thank you well that was an incredibly emotional day for us arriving home into the uk after seven years away but we obviously shot that at the end of september when we arrived and now we find ourselves in the middle of winter so we thought we'd give you an update real-time update of where we are right now and to answer the obvious question is this the end of sailing florence and is it the end of these videos well we're very happy to say that no it isn't we plan to continue sailing and we've actually set ourselves the challenge to sail into a completely different environment than that that we've been used to over the last seven years so we plan to sail in 2024 up into the arctic circle and thanks to the support of our patrons we're going to be making these videos and taking you along with us but in order to do that we need to do a massive refit to florence to prepare her and to do a whole load of maintenance and repairs after seven years of continuous sailing around the world so we are here in the middle of the boatyard in a complete mess in the middle of a massive refit and we've got a deadline because we need to get sailing in the spring we started this process just two days after we arrived and we have been relentlessly working on florence ever since we plan to launch in the spring and then set sail for the arctic but there's a lot of work that needs to be done between then and now so the videos are gradually going to catch up closer to real time but if you would like to be more up to date on what's going on in the yard then sign up to the crew on patreon where you can access real-time updates from us in the boatyard and have a chat with us about how we're getting on thanks for watching over the years we hope you enjoyed the 170 odd videos we've put out sharing this adventure of sailing around the world and we hope you'll enjoy coming along with us as we take on the next adventure to sail to the top of the world we'd like to say a huge thank you to everybody who shared their stills and video footage that they'd taken of our homecoming event and allowed us to use them here in this episode and a special thank you to the bbc team for also sharing their footage it's not very often that we have the luxury of so many people helping us to film florence sailing into a port