Passage to Portsmouth

Sleeping off watch in comfort

After waiting five days at anchor in Stangate Creek we finally had some favourable winds to continue our journey south.  This trip was 170 NM and took about 36 hours with an extremely busy coastline off Dover with the shipping and ferries.  With light winds John decided to pole out the genoa – just before dusk, another new evolution.  While easily manageable, gybing the genoa while approaching Dover is not recommended practice.  Leanne had just heated up dinner at 2030hrs when the call came we needed to gybe and she was needed on the helm for 15 mins.  Yeah right – 45mins later the gybe and pole were completed and by the time we had both settled down again it was 2230hrs before dinner was served.  With the amount of shipping traffic we finally managed to go down to one person on watch at 0100hrs so we could get some rest.  The challenges of shorthanded sailing! The hot showers in the early hours when changing watch was sheer luxury and one advantage of motoring for a few hours.

No Man's Land Fort

For the first time we arrived in daylight to our next location and anchored of Stoke Bay in the Solent and were able to see ‘No Man’s Land Fort’ built in 1867 is a conspicuous seamark approaching Portsmouth. The forts are now luxury venues for hire complete with helipad, 22 bedrooms, cabaret club, 200 person banquet hall, jacuzzi and sauna -  a stunning venue if you were after a luxury treat. Tired but satisfied we had a recovery day before moving into Portsmouth Harbour to spend a couple of nights at the Royal Clarence Marina to enjoy a couple of days sightseeing.  

 

Portsmouth is steeped in maritime history and wherever you are the senior service (Royal Navy) is evident.  One of the highlights was visiting HMS Victory which was launched in 1765 and had a crew of 850. Victory was Nelson's flag ship and led the Battle of Trafalgar where Nelson was fatally wounded – it was quite spine chilling to stand in the spot where Nelson was shot.

HMS Victory

Victory is the oldest commissioned warship in the world and has been beautifully restored to allow an appreciation of what live onboard would have been like - as expected the lower you go down the decks the more challenging the living conditions.  Viewing the surgery was particularly gruesome when seeing the tools used for amputations, with no anesthetic or alcohol it was a ‘short’ 1min 30 secs to amputate a leg. Thankgoodness for modern medicines:).

  

Cannon deck

Sleeping and dining amongst the cannons

  

 

We then visited the warship HMS Warrior launched in 1860, with a crew of 750, she was a revolutionary design and was Britain’s first iron-hulled, armoured warship. Powered by steam and sail she was the largest, fastest and most powerful ship of her time.  Influencing naval architecture Warrior, was in her time, the ultimate deterrent.  Yet within ten years she was obsolete!  

 

HMS Warrior

 The Mary Rose Museum was also impressive.  The Mary Rose was King Edward VII's warship and was launched in 1511.  She served for 34 years before being sunk off Portsmouth in 1545 in a battle with the French.  She 437 years underwater and was raised in 1982 and has spent 35 years in conservation.  The conservation project was fascinating – 12yrs to excavate the Mary Rose from the sea bed, with a 15 years restoration project including four years of preserving sprays before drying her out (one year remaining).  

 

Mary Rose hull structure being 'dried out' 

Next stop is Southampton for the Boat Show.