A SHIP’S return has marked family reunions and final voyages.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Wave Knight docked at Portland Port after patrolling in foreign waters for almost a year.

Aboard were captain Christopher Leigh Forrest, a Falklands veteran who is retiring from the RFA, and long-serving sailor chief officer Roger Stevens.

The pair, along with colleagues, were greeted by family as the vessel returned from its mission of supplying Royal Navy ships and taking part in maritime policing duties around the Gulf of Aden, off the east coast of Africa.

Captain Forrest, 55, said: “The opportunities to follow the seafaring life and travel to foreign parts with the RFA have reduced significantly over the last few years and I have decided to take early retirement in order to follow a new career before the mast. I will shortly be flying to Cape Town to bring the Europa back to the northern hemisphere and, following that, I will be working on Weymouth’s own tall ship the Pelican of London.”

Also returning to his home in Weymouth was chief officer Stevens, who saw his son at a chance meeting out at sea when the Wave Knight restocked with supplies.

Chief officer Stevens, 58, said: “It was amazing when we replenished at HMS Westminster where my son, Christopher, works as the navigating officer.

“My wife, Gillian, was over the moon when she found out we met at sea and managed to spend a few hours together.”

The seafaring family, who came to greet chief officer Stevens as the ship docked, also includes son Shaun.

Chief officer Stevens, who describes meeting his son as the ‘highlight’ of his patrol, received a Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in 1986, when he played a part in rescuing a commercial cargo vessel, the MV Melpol, which had caught fire near Portland.

At the time he was serving on board the RFA Engadine as an engineering officer.

Due to retire in 2013, chief officer Stevens has had a long career with the RFA, including serving for two years in Washington DC with America’s RFA equivalent, the Military Sea Lift Command.

Captain Forrest, who was born in Cowes, joined the RFA in 1972, and during his service, visited South Africa, Kanya, China and Hong Kong.

He served on the RFA Sir Tristram, which was destroyed in the Falklands.

He has a wife, also called Gillian, a son, James and a daughter, Katie.