Just drifting around the Solent, in the gales....

It must be summer approaching as the wind strength just kept on picking up until it reached a nice force 9 on Saturday. We have been strangely social, seeing and hosting folks for a few days. We met John (the knees) and Tina again, together with their friend Peter in a breezy Cowes. Still too cold for a knee shot girls, sorry. Then we fed (or should that be fed-up) Claire and Anne from the crew's former workplace. How we love typing that phrase!

No idea why people come along to be tortured with us though. As an example poor Coralie and Paul  had to endure a night in the fore-cabin with creaky ropes and howling winds last night. Paul looked ready for anything, bringing along his own hat to show his nautical prowess:

Coralie, on the other hand, looked more concerned about life afloat during howling Force 9 winds:

Apparently this isn't the most flattering photo of her ever taken and we should have deleted it. Whoops...

On the other hand, Paul really looked the part on the flybridge:

Sadly, we were not moving at the time so he wasn't at the helm (well, actually we were moving quite a lot, despite being tied securely to the pontoon.) Despite the Force 9 gusts, he managed to retain his cap - most impressive, clearly a budding captain.

They also had to endure Gosport of course, a truly uplifting place to be. Actually Haslar Marina is very nice, it is more the town and the folks there that make Gosport rather depressing. However, it has a good ferry over to the Portsmouth side of the harbour and great views of all the water-borne activity from our nice hammerhead berth. We think this picture kind of sums up how Gosport looks and feels since the navy pulled out:

Ever seen a more depressed crane??

The only submarines left now are like the one we can just see from our berth - ashore in the museum (which is well worth a visit by the way).  Those of you with good vision will recognise the shape ashore:

You must do the museum tour and experience a little of what life was like on older subs and how it feels during a dummy depth charge attack. Total respect for anyone who served or is serving in submarines....

Just astern of us is an alternative way of getting your boat out of the water. If you recall the pictures of our boat hanging in straps beneath the synchrolift at Shamrock Quay, you might think this looks less stressful:

Stephen (the trolley shopper and shooting man) used it last week and gave a good report so we checked to see what the maximum capacity of the lift was. 50 tons so it is an option for us in future.

Bron and Patrick - secret correspondence

You know how as parents you have to check on the internet activities of your children? Well, luckily we had a look at our PC one morning and found that overnight there had been some suspicious activity. Hacking into an email account, we found the following exchange between Bron(wen) the painting (not panting) spaniel from Penarth and Patrick.

A reminder of Bron:





Draw your own conclusions from this unedited exchange:


Hello you nice people.
My dad says he's tired and resting in front of the fire so he's told me I have to write to you cos I'm so clever.
I've been walking him lots on the beach and getting him to,work cos I do enjoy driving that big boat and seeing all the kids and other people.
My friend Precious keeps coming to stay but I don't feel wonderful cos she snores dead loud.
I've been painting again too. I got a white tail cos he made me help paint the cabin on our sleeping boat. Then he took me round the bay on it. It was very nice. He says we are taking Helen out on it soon. Bet she gets sea sick.
That big smelly red boat is going next week to Scotland..... Well that's what he keeps saying. I won't believe it until it's not there anymore. He also taught me how to clean something called a filter and get oil out of a gearbox on the little wobbly white boat too. I enjoyed that cos I reckon the oil is good for my coat but I do wish he'd take me for another hair cut. I'm getting warm now so I lie in any big puddles and smelly ditches that I can find. Dunno why he moans about me being smelly. I like smelly.
He's been reading to me about your adventures too. It sounds such fun having pressure washers to play with in big boatyards. I like boat yards. There's lots of interesting smells.
I need a sleep now and he wants this back so I will say night night.
Lots of love
Bronwen xxxxx


Hello Bron

I find that the humans are pretty feeble too. They insist on sleeping (and snoring) and then tell me that I cannot go on holiday with them as I would be something called "excess baggage". Apparently I have too much millet inside me.

I must admit that when I first saw you, I was frightened. You looked a little mad - lots of rushing about and waggling - which reminded me of how seals behave when they are chasing us and throwing us about in the water for fun. Then I realised that you were nice and friendly and that you liked dog meat not penguin meat (although I am not sure what is in dog meat). Just to be clear, I might look a little bit porky but there isn't much meat on me, and my millet is not good to eat, not to mention my fur.

I do miss seeing you on the smelly noisy red boat and running about on the pontoon. However, my guardians (not parents, they don't treat me like a favoured son as I cannot go on holiday with them) keep talking about coming back to Penarth next winter. Next winter - have they looked outside today!! This is clearly winter. Anyway, that means we can see each other again and deepen our relationship. So glad that Precious isn't your special friend as I want to become that. I do realise that a penguin / spaniel relationship is unusual but I am that kind of guy.

One question - you said "hello you nice people". Who is the other nice person then?

Hugs from Gosport (they took me here today, across a very choppy Solent as apparently the female guardian has to have a tooth filled next week)

Patrick

We clearly have to watch him more closely......