Parade of Sail

Robinetta

This morning we had a Parade of Sail which involved about half the gaffers locking out of Ramsgate inner harbour, sailing up and down off the beach for a couple of hours, and then locking back in again. It was a pleasant sail on a warm bright day with light winds: one of those days when it is more comfortable to be on the water.  

Bonita's crew see old boats sailing everyday of course, but I later heard that quite a lot of people were enjoying watching the event from the beach.

The picture shows Robinetta in the parade of sail. She was built in 1937 and  the noted yachting journalist Maurice Griffiths called her 'a saucy little tub'.

In the evening we enjoyed a meal in the Oak Hotel by the waterfront. 

We have seen many changes in Ramsgate over the years, many for the better. One thing I don't remember from previous visits is the large commercial aircraft coming in low over the town centre to land at Manston airport. There are not at present very many of them, at least by Heathrow or Gatwick standards. However if no clear decision is made on airport expansion in the South East and there is just some increased activity all round, then more traffic at Manston might well have a detrimental effect on this relatively unspoilt part of Kent. It could be argued that one advantage of the Goodwin Sands airport proposal is that this air traffic would be moved offshore ending these low level flights over Ramsgate and enabling Manston to be returned to being part of rural England. 

Bonita lovely but blurry

Strong SW winds are forecast for tomorrow but we will decide in the morning whether to choose the discomforts of the sea or the attractions of Ramsgate.

The tributes start pouring in...

Click picture below to watch Jane's video...

Ramsgate Gathering

There is much of interest in Ramsgate and many memories of the Dunkirk little ships of 1940. 

Tamzine at the Imperial War Museum

My brother-in-law Ant Bennett has a link to the smallest little ship to make the journey and return intact. Tamzine is a 14 ft 9in dinghy that was built for Ant's father, Ralph. Ralph was away on active service but Tamzine was kept at Birchington, near Margate and was unceremoniously commandeered for the evacuation. 

She was used to ferry troops from the beaches to the larger ships offshore and then, rather than being abandoned, remarkably she was bought back to England. 

She had no form of identification but was by chance recognised by a friend of Ralph's, and Tamzine and Ralph were reunited in due course when he got back from service abroad. The dinghy had suffered a bit of wear and tear and had acquired stains in the bilges thought to be due to blood. Tamzine continued to give good service throughout Ant's childhood and then, following Ralph's death in 1980, the family donated this smallest of the little ships to the Imperial War Museum. The blood stains can no longer been seen though as the IWM had her bottom planks replaced.

We were today visited by our friends Sue and Russell who live in Ramsgate and are enthusiastic local historians. Sue last came aboard Bonita when she was here for the OGA 25th anniversary celebrations in 1988.

Russell, Sue, Emma and John

Viscount De L'Isle

The formal part of today's proceedings included a welcome from Viscount De L'Isle, the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, and by Laura Sandys the local MP. We were all impressed by how clearly they recognised the importance of the OGA in preserving our maritime heritage, and by Rob Holden's powers of influence.

In the evening we enjoyed the hospitality of the Royal Temple Yacht club in their fine clubhouse overlooking the harbour.

Ramsgate

We left the Swale in light winds and partly motored, partly sailed down the Kent coast and round the North Foreland to Ramsgate. Ramsgate harbour is always a favourite, full of interest and history. The town has a separate life of its own.

Ramsgate RNLI station

Ramsgate inner harbour is the site of an excellent lifeboat station designed by our sponsors Beckett Rankine. They tell us that the RNLI are an interesting client to work for as they require their facilities to be designed with a 120 year design life. To provide such durability in a maritime environment is not easily done and most commercial port clients are unwilling to pay the premium for it. The inshore lifeboat is stored inside the building and the design brief for the building required the large door to be able to be opened in any weather since there is no upper wind speed limit for an RNLI launch. The building has a substantial steel frame designed to withstand the uplift forces which would result from opening the large door during a south westerly hurricane!

We had a fair amount of manoeuvring in marina berths but eventually Bonita came to rest without damage in the heritage section of the inner harbour. There are several other gaffers here and the whole weekend has been ably organised by Rob and Jan Holden. Their lovely little cutter Emanuel, which once sailed the Atlantic, is here too.

Dunkirk Little Ship Sundowner

The second picture shows Bonita astern of the motor yacht Sundowner,which has an interesting history. Originally built in 1912 as an admiralty launch, she was converted to a yacht for Charles Lightoller. He was the second mate on the Titanic and the most senior officer to survive her sinking; he subsequently gave evidence at the official enquiries. Between the wars he cruised extensively in European waters in Sundowner, and in 1940 took her to Dunkirk, filled her with 130 soldiers from the beaches and bought them all back to Ramsgate. She survived multiple attacks from the air during the journey as well as the hazard of wash from fast moving Destroyers. It is very appropriate that she is preserved and on display here  in Ramsgate.

The Swale

Emma and Shivering Sands

We were right to stay in Brightlingsea yesterday. Today we woke to a warm sunny day with a force 3 SE wind.

We left the harbour at high tide - 8.20am- and had a sparkling sail across the estuary. We went quite close to two of the second world war anti-aircraft forts as the pictures show. 

John and Knock John

The story of the hurried design and construction of these forts under wartime conditions and their survival for over seventy years without any maintenance at all is quite remarkable and deserves to be better known. The forts are of two types, some like Knock John Tower were constructed in dry docks and then floated into position and sunk. Others like the Shivering Sands Forts were constructed in-situ on piled platforms. Both types were designed by the talented civil engineer Guy Maunsell. Some of the forts had a second life after the war as pirate radio stations and in one case as the independent kingdom of Sealand.

In the evening we sailed into the river Swale and picked up our mooring buoy which we had last let go at the beginning of our circumnavigation on 26 April.

Bonita and her crew have had many adventures in the 97 days since we left. The old lady has in general stood up to the pressures pretty well although at times the crew have shown signs of strain.  However this is not the end of this year's cruise: we have to press on to get the the Old Gaffers bumper festival in Cowes in two weeks time.

Back on our home mooring...