Dressed overall

The new gearbox was fixed and working by lunchtime thanks to the hard work and excellent service by RHP Marine of Cowes. Restored to full power, but with her owner somewhat poorer, Bonita motored the few hundred yards down the river Medina to join dozens of other gaff rigged boats. The next few days of varied activities and entertainments will form the culmination of the OGA 50th anniversary celebrations and the end of the Round Britain Challenge. 

Most of the boats are dressed overall with code flags and the overall effect of hundreds of multicoloured flags fluttering in the breeze was very striking and must have impressed any casual visitors that something special was going on.

The pictures show cousin George Beckett on Young  Alert, which I used to own and which George has restored and sails fearlessly. He has just returned from a single handed trip to Guernsey. 

Also here is Sian and Ant's boat Mary Louise.This is the first time our three boats have been together in the same port.

In the evening the refined air of Cowes was enlivened by suitable festivities at the Open Mic evening.

Gathering Gaffers

The photo shows a large empty space where the gearbox used to be.  The good news is that our new gearbox has turned up. The bad news is that is slightly longer than the old one and doesn't quite fit. However it should be possible to make it fit without too much trouble and we hope to be mobile again by midday tomorrow.

In the meantime gaffers are beginning to arrive, including the Round Britain boats Toucando, High Barbaree and Minstrel.

 Britannia looking bleak

On the quay at East Cowes is the impressive hull of the replica of the Britannia, the King's Yacht between 1893 and 1936 and one of the most successful racing yachts ever built. The original was sunk after the death of George V as he stipulated in his will. The replica was built in Russia in 1994 and transported to England for completion and now reconstruction; its been a troubled project and she has yet to have her first sail.

Quibus Nobilis Est Animus

I do hope they can get the project completed as it would be marvellous to see Britannia sailing again. We visited the shop in the High Street supporting this project and selling T-shirts, photos etc. They certainly need to raise a lot of money but the plan is to move the hull to Portsmouth to continue the work with the intention of getting her sailing by 2015.  Designed by G L Watson Britannia was originally built as a gaff cutter but converted to Bermudan rig for the last ten years or so of her life. Sadly the reconstruction will not represent the Britannia as she was in her finest days, but will also have a bermudan rig.

Engine trouble in Cowes

Last night Sarah came down on the train to join us in Gosport and this morning we motored out of the harbour.   This took a little time as Bonita was berthed in the middle of a large marina and it soon became very clear that all was not well with the engine. There were gruesome grinding noises coming out of the gearbox and intermittent loss of power. 

I wondered about turning back to Gosport to get it fixed, but decided that if  we were to be engineless, with the OGA weekend coming up it would be better to be stuck in Cowes than stuck in Gosport.  We therefore crossed the Solent and with some difficulty tied up on the pontoon of a marine engineering firm on the Medina river.

I had been feeling quite smug that we had got round Britain without any major mechanical problems, but  it seems the 30 year old gearbox was not up to the strain. We have after all done quite a lot of manoeuvering in quite a lot of harbours in the last three months.  

At present it looks hopeful  that we might be able to get a replacement gearbox in the next day or two.  Once it was clear there was nothing else we could do today we looked round the town.  I haven't been here for a couple of years, and although many of the shops I remembered have gone they have all been replaced by other shops of very much the same sort.  There is certainly a unique atmosphere about Cowes in August and the arrival of over 200 gaffers later this week will definitely add to this.

In the evening we had supper with Sian and Ant who crewed with us earlier in the cruise and have a flat in the town.

 

You can get just about anything to do with yachts fixed at Cowes so we  are hoping to be back in action soon.

And yet another tribute...

Congratulations to Bonita, Mike & Deirdre, and all the rest of the crew who played a part in the circumnavigation, by Bonita, of mainland Great Britain!

The early weeks of  Bonita's voyage were plagued with appalling and unreasonably unseasonable weather. Despite the penetrating cold and my losing 5 kg north of Lands End (amply replenished once we got to Waterford) I feel privileged to have been able to take a small part as the head wind continued to veer against her. Crossing the Irish Sea was my longest passage under sail to date and reminiscent of simpler sailing in the sixties and early seventies; albeit in even smaller grp boats, only one of which was a 22 ft gunter rigged not-so-old gaffer!

While I regret that I will be unable to join you all in Cowes for the finale I wish you a great time there - you deserve it!  Well done to all of you, especially Bonita, who has Mike in particular to thank for her ongoing, and now well proven, seaworthiness at 125 years old! 

Mike is also to be congratulated for running a very happy ship. Despite the challenge of cramped conditions and the late-to-arrive summer there has clearly been no shortage of friends and family queuing up to join the crew.

David Patuck

Light and shade in Portsmouth

After a weekend of entertaining visitors we are waiting for more durable crew, due this evening. We have to be in Cowes on Thursday for the start of the big gaffers' festival.

There is much of interest to see in Portsmouth apart from the major warships, and there are several small naval museums. There is a display of ships' figureheads and it seems that some battleships still carried figureheads at the time Bonita was launched. 

The picture is of the figurehead of HMS Blazer, a small paddle gunship from 1847. Paddle steamers did not make good warships as the paddles were too vulnerable to damage, and the Blazer might seem to be of little significance. However her captain wanted his crew to look smart, allegedly for a visit by Queen Victoria, so he had short blue jackets with collars, lapels and brass buttons made and issued to his sailors. His sartorial taste lives on and his ships name has entered the language even if his naval exploits might have been forgotten.

There is also a museum dedicated to Nelson with many portraits of him on display. This  bust is supposed to represent the best likeness of him at the time of his death. I was interested that none of the paintings or sculptures on display show his facial injuries for which there is ample medical evidence. 

He was blinded in his right eye in battle in 1794 leaving the pupil so widely dilated that the blue iris was barely visible (his own description). He had a wound to his forehead sustained at the Battle of the Nile which left a conspicuous scar and, due to a poor surgical repair resulted in a paralysis of the left forehead that must have been very obvious. Yet these injuries are not apparent in his later portraits, even those that show both eyes clearly. 

Maybe its more acceptable if our heros are thought to have face and brain intact, even if there might be other bits of them missing.

We have now probably been in Gosport long enough and hope to move on tomorrow.