England

Beachy Head, England

Ruda celebrated her return to home waters by anchoring for the night in the The Downs to imagine herself amongst the constellation of riding lights that would have embellished those grey waters in earlier centuries. The following day she made for Ramsgate, and the crew went to the pub for a pint.

Leaving the shelter of the Ramsgate’s Royal harbour, the trip around North Foreland and into the Thames Estuary was made in the path of a storm tide which propelled Ruda along London’s river to a mooring just below Tower Bridge. Was this the first time that Ruda had been back here since she attended the London Boat Show in 1938?  Perhaps, but it was certainly the first time that she’d brought her present crew to their own capital city, where she passed two winters before heading off once again, this time back towards the west country where her adventures had begun.

On the way she called in at Shoreham and passed some time within a couple of boat lengths of the spot where, all those years before, her keel had been laid. After visiting harbours large and small along England’s south coast she arrived in Falmouth and found herself a friendly little boatyard up the river at Penryn, Cornwall’s erstwhile county town. Here, after a journey of over 11,500 nautical miles lasting almost a decade, she took some time to rest, and to receive a good deal of well deserved care and attention.