Portsmouth Harbour

Bonita from Brighton's Palace Pier by Nic Compton

We woke in Newhaven to a brisk NE breeze and a cloudy sky. Nic had taken lots of pictures aboard yesterday but had none of Bonita sailing. We eventually agreed that he would take the bus to Brighton and get out on the end of pier: we would take the boat down there and sail past a couple of times as close to the pier as we could.  This is one of his pictures. It was quite a blustery morning with gusts coming off the land which is why we have a couple of reefs in the mainsail, but the sea looks fairly calm. There are some more of Nic's lovely photos posted on Facebook.

After this excitement was over we settled down to a fair weather sail past Selsey Bill and into Portsmouth harbour. We took a berth on Gosport marina where there are several huge racing boats being prepared for a 2013/14 circumnavigation (of the world).

We admired the boats but were not sure we envied the crews who seem to have a fairly spartan life centred around getting the best performance out of their boat. That sort of thing wouldn't appeal to everyone..