We were on our way at 09:00, with 358km to go before we were reunited with Celtic Warrior. Now our HLR, Maciek Wojciechowski, had assured me that he would be keeping an eye on her and whilst of course I trusted that he would, nevertheless I must confess to a little worry as you never know, something might have gone wrong internally that he couldn’t be aware of, a small water leak for instance. As it happened and to save suspense, apart from the occasional christening from an incontinent bird, she was absolutely fine – thank you Maciek!

358km is no great distance given good roads, only about a 3 hour drive in fact but as our route was not taking us anywhere near the motorway network and moreover, it was winding its way through conurbations and villages by the dozen, the actual journey time, allowing for stops, was nearer 7 hours. Actually, that also accounts for a shopping stop in Lidl in Świnoujście. The drive was pretty uneventful and the day was bright and sunny, a nice day for it.

Back on board CW I busied myself cleaning off the bird poo and getting the fine patina of dust off everything. It’s been a pretty dry fortnight so there was plenty of time for a build- up of dirt on decks and in the scuppers. We also refreshed the water tank, not a trivial task as here you have to buy water and it took ages – we’ll top the tank up again before we leave, to allow us some flexibility with regard to destination. Once all that was done it was well after the witching hour of 18:00 and as I’d put the ice-maker on, the girls had G&T’s and I had a lovely cold beer, well deserved even if I say so myself.