Coincidence?

It may just be a coincidence, but back in the early 1990's I owned a dinghy exactly like this, including the glassed over gunnels and rubbing strips and I admit to leaving it chained up on the foreshore for a couple of years when we sailed off to the Caribbean.

 Having got back to UK what with one thing an another it got forgotten and as far as I know, stayed chained up on the foreshore, until a few years later when it turned up in the Hamble having been bought for almost next to nothing by one of the old live aboard characters for commuting between his yacht and the RAFYC bar. 

He did quite a good job of fixing it up, including a fresh coat of battleship grey paint and it was in use until his death probably 15 or more years ago.

Maybe this isn't the same boat, it's certainly had some more nice modifications and in better shape than when I possibly owned it, but it could well be and it makes a good story.

Frome

We stopped at Frome recently, somewhere we hadn't visited for many years and had forgotten how charming the old rural town is.

Steep cobbled streets and buildings of Bath stone, maybe not Sharfesbury but you can imagine the baker's boy wheeling his bicycle up here (if you're old enough to remember the advert)

There's clearly some local civic pride to have gone to the time and trouble with the decorations of lamp posts like this fine example

And more than a sense of humour with some of the local shops, not the sort of name you're likely to see in a chain store in a big shopping mall and all the better for that.

Frome as a town grew and prospered with the wool trade and is still very aware of it's history.

 "Sheppards Barton" alleyway and steps on the Frome heritage trail, before the days of traffic. Would be interesting to know who or what Sheppards Barton was or why it was so named, I should have taken a better photo of the information wall plate.

 And don't think Frome is all 118th an d19th century history, there is clearly a modern social scene in the town. Would be interesting to understand what exactly a Buff disco is? And maybe with disco and Kiki Dee modern-ish would be a better description.

Really great secondhand bookshop, worth climbing the hill for.

The 19th century wealth of the town is perhaps displayed best in St John the Baptist church near the centre, the carved reliefs on the walled steps leading to the church are magnificent.

As is the interior, see here the side chapel and stained glass.

York's Motor Works and prior to that the Yeovil Tractor Company occupied grand premises on the main street.

 Slightly off the tourist beaten track, and as consequence maybe passed over with some of the less beneficial trends, with quite a few interesting places to eat, it's worth a visit together with the nearby Cley Hill
 

Aunty 's for Sale

Featured recently Tia Patricia is up for sale over in Emsworth, great boat for pottering around the harbour, fishing, picnics.

 

Forceful

Very aggressive looking motorboat, looks like high performance design perhaps for military or security use?

 Thanks to Steve for pointing out in comments that this is in fact an autonomous, unmanned Mine Counter-Measures craft, in short a robotic minesweeper. 

I've mentioned before that my Dad served on an Algerine Class minesweeper in WW2 including creating a safe pathway for the allied invasion of Italy, I'm sure he would have been interested, encouraged and enthusiastic to see that technology has come so far since those days

This weekend

The Totland Inter club Sandcastle Competition will be held this coming weekend with teams representing Hurst Castle SC, Kehaven YC, Lymington Town SC and Yarmouth SC.

 

Teams from the "north island" will sail over to the Wight for a competition start at around 2.30 with 60 minutes building time to complete the sand castle or sculpture within a 3 meter x 3 meter plot.

 Prizes will be given for best traditional sand castle, most original sand sculpture and the famous Golden Bucket for best overall.

Langushing

 Sadly look way too far gone, judging by the planking on the bows it was probably a fine boat in the day

 

Travelling

 I took some time off during a business trip to Hong Kong to climb Victoria peak again, although much warmer than the UK the weather was overcast with low clouds.

Rising up from the bustling center HK, the buildings drop away into lush wooded slopes, this picture taken only about 2.5 Km from my hotel at the conference center on the waterfront.

These roots are amazing, they can be seen all over the peak where the jungle is reclaiming it's grip on the concrete infrastructure to form what is a very beautiful co-existence.

The walk to the peak was 4.2miles  but the elevation with 1800 feet elevation, phew.

Happy Valley must be the only horse racing course inside a city.

2024 is Year of the Dragon, the Dragon holds a significant place as an auspicious and extraordinary creature, unparalleled in talent and excellence. It symbolizes power, nobility, honor, luck, and success.

A 20 minute taxi ride from down town is Deep Water Bay, apparently very busy at the weekend, but nicely empty on an early morning weekday.

 

England and St George's day

 The red cross on a white background, national flag of England  has recently come under abuse by the British Olympic Association  and Nike's design for the England football team shirt, while English Heritage are falling over backwards to tell us that St George wasn't actually English.

Unlike some of our neighbors we English don't seem to celebrate our patron saint much, and I confess the last time I went to the St George's day parade was with the Sea Scouts some 50 years ago.

Does it actually matter that our patron saint was born and died in the middle east? There's also some division over his origin some claiming it was Cappadocia in modern day Turkey, others that he was born in Joppa of Christian parents. The biblical city of Joppa is now understood to be Jaffa part of Tel Aviv.

Did he really kill a dragon and rescue a princess? It seems likely that he did die, executed for defending Christians against persecution by Roman Emperor Dicocietian in AD 303. His actions speak of bravery and integrity which are worthy of a patron saint. 

It's suggested that George's exploits were made known to England by Arculphus and Adamnan on return from the holy lands in circa AD 700 and was made patron saint of England in 1098 after appearing to the starving and outnumbered crusaders at Battle of Antioch in the same year, who went on to defeat the attacking regimens under Kerbogha.

So whether you can trace your ancestors back though the generations or if you have chosen this land as home, St George an adopted patron saint seems to be a good representative of the values of our island nation and worth celebrating

" All our past acclaims our future: Shakespeare's voice and Nelson's hand

Milton's faith and Wordsworth's trust in this our chosen and chain-less land"

Swinburne - England an Ode

Winchester

 For a variety of reasons we've been visiting the historic city of Winchester, often to walk the water meadows south of the city along the Itchen Navigation path, climbing St. Catherine’s Hill site of a hill fort and past Hospital of St. Cross established as an almshouse in medieval times, all of which are but a short stroll from the old city center.

The city itself is no less interesting having. once been the seat of government in pre-Norman England. Many of those historical roots can still be seen in the old center, below statue of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, 1367-1404 in the high street.

From more recent history probably 19th century, but don't be a nuisance in Hammond's passage, the little round nose and lips with. J.Ace is interesting, perhaps an insurance token> J.Ace is repeated on the main sign.

The high street formerly supported cobblers and boot makers, these day's there are more high end fashion shoes, cafe's and restaurants.

The old covered parade of shops

 There are lots of small passages and alleys linking the streets or opening out into a different space.

Not sure if this is a Parliament clock or just a commercial public timepiece.

Winchester also has it's own version of Banksy - Hendog who's artwork can be seen around the town

 Winchester has many famous attractions, the cathedral, Jane Austin's House, Winchester School, and as a result lots of cafes, bars and restaurants which make it a good place to visit, but there's huge amount to find just wandering slowly about and seeing what's around the next corner

 

All Change

 One day it's blowing a gale, grey overcast and feeling like winter, there's flooding due the spring tide being pushed up by the wind reportedly as much as 3/4 of a meter above predicted HW and most probably the combined effect of the sun and moon alignment in the eclipse.

A couple of days later, the wind has dropped the sun has come out and it's feeling like Spring might actually have arrived.

Keyhaven

The two neighboring sailing clubs seem from across the saltings. On the left Hurst Castle SC and on the right Keyhaven YC. Both are a great place to sail from.

 

Storm Kathleen

Sunday morning was probably the aftermath of Kathleen but it was still pretty breezy.

 The wind was blowing perpendicular across Southampton Water and even with the relatively short fetch it was kicking up white caps.

Combined with the spring tides the strong winds had pushed the high water height further which was flooding into the car park at Warsash.

Despite the conditions there were a couple of boats out, I only saw this making the approach and entry into the river making good speed with just two stay sails set.

 

Papageno

Seen in the yacht basin at Courseulles in Normandy, Papageno looks like she might be a Dragon, but I couldn't get close enough to be sure.

Courseulles is a small, tidal port on the Normandy coast which is mainly gently sloping beaches, there's a long history of day boats sailing from the port dating back well before the war.

 Interesting name, Papageno is half man and half bird, loves wine, women and music and is the secret star of Mozart's Magic Flute and also seems to mean bird catcher.
 

Haul Out

 The Flugel, Greg's Memory sloop hauled out at the Pink Ferry marine railway

One of the benefits of a shoal draft centerboard is being able to access facilities which don't have the depth for deep draft boats.

Nice traditional interior.

 

On the hard

What looks like an MFV, perhaps based on a Fife alongside the pier at Wicor in Portsmouth harbour, hopefully awaiting restoration.

 The photo has a washed out colour which seems to suit the scene, i can't claim any intention behind that I just took a quick pic using my phone.

Itchen Ferry - Freda intrigue

Itchen Ferry Freda has been featured previously here looking great in a brief spell of winter sunshine.  

There is however some intrigue involving her history, according to local sources she was not originally called Freda, previous name unknown but still a working fishing boat, she was wrecked in the great storm which ravaged the UK in 1987.

At the time she broke her mooring and was washed ashore, suffering damage and so sold out of fishing use to a local yacht broker who effected repairs and put her to use as a leisure yacht.

It's an interesting chapter in a long history which has thankfully she survived and is still with us after all these years and looking good.