From La Coruna we tracked north along the west coast of Spain and France and then into the English Channel bound for Southampton. It's a voyage of about 570 nautical miles necessitating a whole day at sea. This is not an entirely bad thing on a trip like this. The rapid succession of being mean that you need to be up and ready to go every day if you're going to experience the onshore sights and potential adventures on offer. So the occasional day to chill out on board is welcomed. We sailed up the Solent into Southampton early on Day 9. The weather gods were kind to us again which was wonderful. Terry's family lived in Southampton for several years and we had visited here often so we weren't breaking our necks to do any sightseeing (without being too unkind Southampton is not exactly one England's beauty spots). Instead we had a list of domestic chores to do like getting some laundry done, visiting Boots Chemist, finding a camera store, an electronics store and a decent internet facility etc. Despite not being into sightseeing ourselves we did suggest to one of the couples with whom we've become friendly that they pay a visit to the historic village of Winchester a short train ride from Southampton. They did so and were thoroughly enchanted by it. It's a beautiful place - quintessentially English. I suggested to Terry we try for a pucker gen British pub lunch and to that end we happened upon The Red Lion an authentic old pub which served the most enormous meals I've ever seen. The building dated from circa 1400 no less. Sloping floors and doors to boot. Really quaint. A bit of obligatory shopping saw the day out and us back on board and sailing out about 12 hours after we arrived. We come back to the UK in a few weeks at which time we'll be hiring a car and driving around the country for 8-9 days so we are looking very forward to that. But for now it's "adios" to England and on to Rotterdam our next port of call.