return to port?
 

When you have finished patrolling your assigned grid in career mode... do you press ESC and hit "Return to Base", or do you have to actually go back to your port? Or are they the same thing?

You don't HAVE to sail back to your home port, but there are two reasons why you might want to:
1) It's more realistic
2) You earn 100 base renown for sailing back manually.

renown = up grades and your going to need them :yep:

I thought if you sail all the way home, you dont get any renown. It is a bug that persists even in 1.4.

A third reason to sail all the way back home: install Harbor Traffic Mod and look at all the neat ships waiting there.