Hartlepool was to be home for a few days now while I wait for dad to come up from Cornwall. The plan was that he would come sailing for a few weeks until we made it to the south coast. Most things that needed sorting were done while we were staying in North Shields so there was now some time to kill.

The harbour front is going through a transformation and consequently there are loads of shops within easy reach. One thing that did catch my eye was a large three-mast ship permanently moored at the back of the docks. It was soon discovered that this ship was the HMS Trincomalee. Like every other town on the east coast (or at least it feels like it) their ship has a unique claim.

Dundee has Scott’s ship, Whitby had a replica of Cook’s ship and Hartlepool now had ”the world’s second oldest ship still floating”. After paying your money you get an excellent audio headset tour around the ship. One thing that is notable about the Trincomalee is that even Silverwind has more headroom!

At 6am on Thursday morning dad arrived on the early morning bus from London. We went back to the boat and had a long lie in. The timing was a bit unfortunate; as we had been sitting in Hartlepool for two days while the weather had been good, it was now the weather chose to turn bad. The wind was still strong on Friday and it was the same on Saturday but things are looking good for a Sunday departure.