Late Sunday I was waiting at the local station, waiting to meet my German domiciled Kiwi nephew and his German partner. (Although spread around the world all three of my nephews have German speaking partners; we have turned into a very international family in 2 generations... NZ, Australia, Canada, Germany, England, Japan,....)
Nick and Anita were on a cultural (their word) holiday in England: theatres and historical stuff. I think their sojourn in Havant was less cultural than family catch up and the hope that Mr B might come through with a sailing opportunity.
Mr B did indeed make good a day of sailing on Monday. I left the phone ashore so no photos, but a good day out was had by all. We sailed out of Gosport marina, waved to R08 and R09 (rob and rog) and headed south out of Portsmouth Harbour. Rob and Rog, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, are the Royal Navy's two aircraft carriers and both are currently alongside The Dockyard in Portsmouth.
After a bit of tacking about the Eastern Solent with Anita at the helm (she has her sailing licence back home but we threw her in the deep end here with ferries, cargo ships, leisure boats, race boats, tugs, forts, underwater barriers, race marks, special navigation poles for aircraft carriers, and absolutely no idea the general layout of the hard bit at the bottom of the waterš± - Mr B very familiar with it all and the yacht has electronic charts so we aren't totally cavalier.)
We dug out some old charts when we got home (with only a small detour en route to a microbrewery called Powder Monkey), and Anita spent a good hour studying where she had been sailing before packing up the charts to take home with her.
Eastern Solent is awash with history. Famously King Henry VIII's flagship (and favorite) HMS Mary Rose sank here in 1545, was rediscovered and raised in 1982, along with thousands of artifacts and the whole display of what has been learned from that is in a fabulous new museum in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard.
We didn't have time for a visit on Monday but I do recommend it to anyone planning a visit to Portsmouth.
That sounds like a very nice sail, one we've done many times. Did you catch fish for lunch?
ReplyDeleteThe Mary Rose is one of my favourite exhibitions. Years ago, we sailed around the area where she had sunk and watched the preliminaries to hauling her up.
My father learnt to swim off Gilkicker Point. How surprised he would have been to see this development.
He would indeed be surprised to see that the bund has been dug away so that the newly made apartments will have a Solent view.. I just love the name Gilkicker.
DeleteIt looks like you might have come within sight Seaview on the Isle of Wight, a place where Gail's family spent three happy summer holidays in the 1960's - swimming in the sea, playing beach cricket, pottering around in their leaky sailing dinghy and identifying the the various ocean liners as they cruised by. Happy memories!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail.
Very close to Seaview - lovely place. Leaky sailing dinghies are fine if you have penty of kids bailimg out. Ryde sands would be great for cricket at low tide.
DeleteWhat a wonderful time you all had, I am thinking she will never forget the sailing event and will treasure those charts. I did not like history in school, but love historic places and things, objects and even though I would not get on you sailboat, I would love to see all the things you described. I love old forts too
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome day out. And what a great adventure for Anita - I'm sure she will remember it for a long long time.
ReplyDeleteI watched a documentary on the Mary Rose once, fascinating :)
I'd love to be able to do that.
ReplyDeleteHenry's ship would be amazing to visit- Rose Marie? Anyway, what a great outing for you all. We haven't been sailing for so many years we have forgotten that it is a thing!
ReplyDeleteAn exciting and very informative day.
ReplyDeleteIve only been on a sail boat once It was while visiting Western Australia It was glorious to be rushing through the waves without the sound of a loud motor.
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteJust about perfect! Not lacking in the cultural or the historical at all... YAM xx
That was a good outing.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that the carriers were back in dock...we saw both being launched (we have a friend who was a coppersmith at Rosyth so had tickets and took us along)..interestingly both vessels used a frame contraption to hit the champagne bottle against the hull....and neither broke first time,...
Sounds like an interesteing outing you guys had. We have the similar many mixed ethnicities here too.
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