Bursfest

Who would have thought that Bursledon would have it's very own music festival? Well it does and it was great event with a great line up of musicians playing to a packed village hall throughout the day and evening.

Below playing in the afternoon singer songwriter Dlugokecki who also brought this young kids along, presumably to make sure there was a keen audience, which was there was in any case. CD's were on offer for the cost of a donation to Naomi House charity, of which we have one, it's very good.

Joseph has been paying guitar for just over a year now, so we though it would be a great opportunity to see some live bands and it was, he really liked the guitar playing, especially local blues musician Pete Harris and his song about the I Phone Blues "put down that iphone and pay some attention to me.e.e.."

Above the Southampton Ukulele Jam were frankly brilliant, loads of audience participation, playing some interesting arrangements of some favourites including - Just Can't get Enough, Come Up and See ME (Make Me Smile). Joseph came home asking if could have a ukulele.

There may or may not have been some celebrities playing and Elvis Costello may or may not have been playing with the Ukulele Jam.

Put in in you diary for next year.

Early season

In colder climates they call it frostbiting, but here on the southern coast of the UK things rarely get that cold, but with a sunny Saturday in prospect it was good to see a few boats out even if there was little wind.

Not just dinghies there were more than a few early season yachts out despite the absence of wind.

Vandalism

Our local authority has erected this ugly and presumably expensive fence around the WW2 Bofors anti aircraft gun emplacement on the foreshore of Southampton water by Hamble Point.

The notice explains that the emplacement has become dangerous, although made of reinforced concrete and having survived 70 odd years since the war I would like to understand why remedial repairs were not made rather that put up this hideous fence which denies access to what is an important local landmark from the war years.

Interestingly only a few yards away the footpath is badly eroded and even falling down in places, yet the council for whatever reason don't appear to consider this a danger, or maybe it will suit them to close the path for several months as they did for the path along the Hamble.

I feel doubly aggrieved that the council should waste a significant amount of our taxes on what is an ugly and unnecessary eyesore while at the same time demonstrating inconsistency over safety and access to the common.

As a PS they need to update the information board to say it can now only be seen by peering through an ugly fence.

New boat

Not my boat,  we were admiring this wooden sloop on the inner pontoon at Hamble Point and then shortly after bumped into a friend in the village who has just bought her.

We didn't have enough time to find out much about the boat, she's about 26 feet, but I've been promised a sail, so looking forward to that. Watch this space.

Ultimate 20

I was having a cup of tea at the cafe in Hamble on Sunday morning when this sports boat went past, thinking it looked familiar I went back trough some old post and sure enough the name Redrow came up from a holiday in Fowey a few years ago.

Looking none the worse for her partial sinking and rescue by the Fowey lifeboat back in 2014, Redrow is an Ultimate 20 which I have to say looks like a fun boat.

The design called for a monohull with multihull performance, which offers a dry and stable platform with safe interior space for kids or crew. It is also lightweight and  trailerable, with dinghy like responsive and handling, oh and all that  with the cockpit comfort of a 30 footer which is a pretty compelling package.

Ultimate 20 Class Association.

LOA: 20 feet, 10 inches LWL: 18 feet Beam: 8 feet, 6 inches Draft - keel down: 5 feet Draft - keel up: 9 inches Displacement: 1,260 pounds

Hidden gem

Spotted on the pontoon at Hamble Point, sadly what looks like two J70's were in the way.

If the weather is nice this weekend I'm going to row down and see if she's still there so I can take a few pics from the water. Gotta love that clipper bow.

Cold harbour ferry

Walkers and cyclists hunkered down for a cold and breezy river crossing, makes me feel chilly just looking at this photo, roll on spring.

Sailing Sunday

Sunday dawned bright but with a brisk north easterly but despite that there were more than a few folks out sailing. Out a cat head a bunch of Opi's doing some race training.

The Warsash dinghy fleet were getting ready for a lively start in the river.

But there was a bit more room as the single handed fleet started to gather..

A down wind start, the front runners got their asymmetric's up just after the gun, heading for Southampton water.

By there time the gun went for the single-handed fleet there was a good mix of Toppers and Lasers.

Further upriver the local Foxers were well into their race, as we passed the dinghy park we chatted to a friend who had had an early swim and hadn't made the start, he looked freezing.

We came home feeling as if we should be making more effort to get out frostbiting, but then again we came home, lit the fire and decided that a fresh walk was good enough.

Victory

We've been down to the Portsmouth historic dockyard museum again this time to visit the Mary Rose. When Erica and I last visited it was being sprayed with preservative to stabilise the timbers after nearly 500 years under water. Today the ship's remains are housed in a purpose built and environmentally controlled museum which is really worth a visit.

While we were at the dockyard we couldn't resist a trip around HMS Victory, which admittedly was looking slightly sad with most of her spars removed for repair and re-rigging.

By contrast the hull is looking very tidy, having been recently painted and undergone a fairly major overhaul to the way she is supported in dry dock to prevent the hull from collapsing.

A figurehead of the great man Admiral Horatio Nelson

From the deck of the oldest to the latest ship in the Royal Navy, HMS Victory is still in commission as a serving navy ship, while in the background the latest aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.