sailing in the english channel, 2006

Company outing. We all (or at least most of us) left our BlackBerry devices behind and went sailing in the Channel. Scheduling dictated that I leave the house by 5 AM, unfortunately, but it was a rather pleasant morning and the sailing was quite good. Of course, the weather late in the day was not exactly on our side.

The marina at Portsmouth Harbour. Same boats, same smell, same equipment as any marina on the Cape, or anywhere else. Having just been sailing in Buzzards Bay a few months ago, I felt almost as if the Kingman Yacht Center in Massachusetts and the marina in Portsmouth were connected by a secret passage, like in Clue.

Spot the submarine. It was so large that I didn't see it at first, even when it was pointed out to me.

Another view of the docks at the marina.

This is Portsmouth's Millennium Tower. According to Wikipedia it is now called Spinnaker Tower because it opened in 2005 rather than its original planned opening year of 1999. It looks vaguely reminiscent of a sail billowing in the breeze from a tall mast, and that seems to have been the intent. The glass-enclosed bits at the top are viewing platforms.

We split into two groups. This is the other group's boat leaving the marina. The two boats were identical.

Leaving the marina ...

...

There are a couple tall ships docked in Portsmouth; I was told the one on the left is the HMS Victory, the ship on which Admiral Lord Nelson died in the Battle of Trafalgar, two hundred years and a few odd months ago.

The skipper points out a few things to us. There is surprisingly a lot to see in the harbour.

We get caught by the wake of a ferry; they run between Portsmouth and France or the Isle of Wight, and some of them go quite fast.

There are three "islands" like the one at right arrayed across the harbour. They're Victorian, and built artifically on shallow areas. I think some are privately owned. At left is the Millennium Tower.

The Mary Rose buoy. This is where Henry VIII's ship the Mary Rose sunk, and was recovered some decades ago.

The Isle of Wight. Never been there, but now I can claim to have seen it from afar.

A closer view of a town on the Isle of Wight.

We sailed by yet another of the artificial "islands" at Portsmouth Harbour ...

... and I got some nice close shots of it.

I don't remember if I posed for this photo, or if I was really working with the ropes. But we did do actual work on the trip (albeit not BlackBerry-related).

I was wondering whether my camera could take photos through one side of a set of binoculars, and apparently it can.

After a brief rest near Chichester we suit up for rain. Conditions became suddenly cold and wet, and I found myself wishing I wasn't wearing shorts.

The rain gear was an authentically nautical yellow.

I actually steered for most of the trip back, helped by black coffee. We (mostly) caught up to the other boat, pictured here off the starboard bow.

Those are extremely big Channel ferries behind me. I successfuly avoided being swamped by them. It felt like a big accomplishment at the time.