SATURDAY: OFF ALDERNEY - as the weather and the humour continue to improve with a full set of sails pushing us steadily towards our destination, we discover that there is a real "Earl" on board the Jeannie Johnston.
Earl Gill is one of the crew and yes, he is son of the famous band leader. Earl is also a musician who got into sailing in Dublin.
He gets a lot of slagging because of his title, but everyone on board is now in great spirits and has almost forgotten the bad weather which gave us such misery.
We discuss whether we should fly the tricolour at half mast when we reach France to mark the abysmal performance of the Irish rugby team.
There is general agreement that the team performed far below the high standards and achievements of the Earls of the North, who at least won a few major battles when they arrived there.
A black market has started in cigarettes and all kinds of promises and threats are being made for nicotine.
The good news is that the showers are back working, and while the toast is in short supply and may well be rationed, Mark, the cook, is doing a massive job keeping us fed on what is available.
A helicopter swoops down over us and has a good look at what we are doing and then smartly turns away - perhaps they got a whiff of the crew. As we run down the French coast in wonderful sunshine consensus emerges that the Earls just might have been smarter than we thought in heading for a place where there is good weather and such startling scenery.
We eat what is left of the ship's supplies on a sun-kissed deck with full sails above us.
A blood red sun has set in the west and on the other side of the mast hangs a moon. The scene is as near perfect as possible and compensates for all that has gone before.
SUNDAY: LE HAVRE - After a pleasant night where we make a steady progress, we arrive off the port where, to our surprise, many people are watching from the quays for the arrival of the tall ship.
A French television crew is on the dock to film our arrival and Dan Gallagher and Dixie Nugent give them value for money as we play our way to a safe berth beside a British naval vessel.
The O'Neill and the O'Donnell would have had to do a runner if they had spotted the Union Jack anywhere within 100 miles from here. We wave to the bemused armed marine who does not wave back, but then again, he did not fire on us either.
The TV crew tell us that the arrival of the Flight of the Earls commemoration ship and its still unshowered crew has been receiving wide coverage locally.
The captain is told to expect an invasion of locals who want to visit the ship.
There are under-the-breath mutterings from the O'Donnells when we get a text message from Laurence O'Neill from Paris, welcoming us to France.
There was an excellent greeting, however, from the O'Donnell clann, when John O'Donnell's wife arrives with cigarettes.
Capt Coleman brings us all together and awards us certificates which show we have sailed before the mast on the Jeannie Johnston and we sign off as crew.
For us the adventure was ending, but for the O'Neill and O'Donnell, glad as I am sure they were to reach shore, their adventure was continuing with a hard journey ahead of them to Louvain and from there across the Alps to Rome.
Series concluded