POOH BEAR REPORT - 08 Aug 2002 Across the South Coast of England - Part 3 Gosport to Yarmouth, England, June 2002 Gosport/Portsmouth Our passage from Brighton to Portsmouth was unique. We sailed. In fact, we sailed in very pleasant conditions almost the entire distance, without need of radar even once. Nor did we even start the engine until furling sails well into Portsmouth Harbour. Actually, we went into Gosport, located on the west side of the harbour. This decision wasn't arbitrary, as we want to visit with our friends from St. Katharine's on Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa is a magnificent 59' custom sailboat with all the bells and whistles, but with still a few new boat problems that needed correcting. Craig and Linda had brought the boat to the Camper-Nicholson yard, as it was the only yard capable of pulling that size boat with the Aero Rig mast in place. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Craig and Linda, doing dinner together twice. We had met Richard and Christine aboard Hot Spur that one night in East Bourne and again in Brighton. And once again we met in Gosport and spent many hours visiting and sightseeing. We also met Christine and Patricia, two women who sail Stella Nova, a beautiful 34 foot Malo. Invited aboard for drinks, I saw one of the fanciest computer systems I have seen on any midsize sailboat. And they did know how to use it! Incidentally, we were to meet them again two months later in the Crinan Canal in Scotland. Unfortunately we could not visit as they were headed south and we north and could only exchange a few shouted pleasantries in passing. Keep in mind that Portsmouth is the number one naval base for Britain, and has been for centuries, so the number of naval related exhibits is almost unlimited. With Richard and Christine, we rode the ferry over to the Portsmouth Naval Yard, toured the Warrior, the first combined steam and sail fighting ship and armored with incredibly thick iron plates. As with many such "super" items of war, it never fired a shot at an enemy. We also toured the Victory, the flagship on which Lord Nelson died, but won the Battle of Trafalgar. And then we saw a most extraordinary exhibit, the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII's (that name keeps cropping up doesn't it) favorite ship that was launched July 15, 1545, then rolled over and sank in the habour on her maiden voyage (the King wasn't aboard, but a bunch of his soldiers in armor were). Since then many attempts have been made to locate her, but in 1982, using high tech equipment, she was located and eventually raised. The wood had been preserved remarkably well by the habour mud that totally excluded any oxygen. To prevent the wood from disintegrating when brought into the air, the hull is house in a large building where it is sprayed continually with glycol. It is estimated this process will take 5 more years. Meanwhile, we could walk around three sides on two levels examining the details of the Mary Rose almost five hundred years after she sank! Later, back on the Gosport side, I toured the Submarine Museum. How any of the submarine pioneers lived through their early experiments I don't know. Of course, many of them didn't. This was also the time of the Golden Jubilee, celebrating 50 years of reign by Queen Elizabeth. As such we saw fireworks, fireworks, and fireworks and a variety of concerts in local parks. But time was marching on and after five days in Gosport, the Met Office forecast winds SW at 10-15 knots (direction not too good, but the strength great), and Pooh Bear again sailed westward, destination Weymouth. Besides being a major seaport and naval base, the Portsmouth area is yachting center, at least of Britain. The Solent is filled with every imaginable type of craft. Outbound, we dodged big ferries, high- speed ferries, motor yachts, and sailboats from dinghies to a former America's Cup12 meter yacht. We turned south-west down the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland and looked for those 10-15 knot winds. The forecast had the direction correct, on the nose. But instead of 10 to 15, all we found were 20 to 25 knot winds. Yarmouth After several hours of bashing into the resulting head seas, we came to Yarmouth on the NW coast of the Isle of Wight and decided enough was enough. But such a sight greeted us. The harbour was absolutely filled with classic sailboats of all sizes, all rafted four, five, and more deep. We secured a mooring outside the harbor and dinghied in to the habour masters office. It seems we had arrived in the middle of the Old Gaffers Convention. Let me explain about Gaffers. In the old days, all sailboats were "gaff rigged" meaning that the mainsail is four sided, not three sided as today. The spar on the lower side of the sail was the "boom" and on the upper side the "gaff". The original design from which Pooh Bear came was gaff rigged. Especially in England, there are a lot of people that still like wooden boats with gaff rigs (that includes me, but they are too much trouble to maintain and sail). In any case, each year many of the owners of these old gaffers (some may be almost new) get together and swap sea stories, ideas, and admire the other guy's boat. And Yarmouth welcomes them a variety of booths displays and musical groups on ashore. With the waterfront streets blocked on we mingled with the crowds, listed to some of the music, ate dinner, then returned to Pooh in time to catch the latest Navtex weather broadcast. It still forecast that mythical 10 to 15. But when we looked around, sure enough, it was 10 to 15. We didn't even try and get back our mooring fee. Instead we dropped the mooring and headed west into the darkness. End of Part 3, part 4 will follow. Bob & Judy (aboard s/v Pooh Bear in Oban, Scotland)