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.