06 | December | 2013

Cheers,

With all of the recent horrible weather around Great Britain and Europe, Randal and I have been quite lucky avoiding it. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Portsmouth at the Historic Dockyard and most of Thursday making our way back to London by way of Lymington. All of our travel was by train and all of our trains were on time, though the weather did affect some train travel from the north. The only rather silly disappointment was that our train from Victoria to Portsmouth had no food car or tea trolley so I wasn’t able to have any Brit Rail Tea. Portsmouth was cold and overcast, but most of the time we were indoors at the various museums or aboard the HMS Victory or HMS Warrior. The weather was even good enough to take the short motorized harbor cruise that came with our entry ticket.

It will take me a bit to send photos as I got hung up right away at the mention of the American Revolutionary War. “Commissioned for service in the American War of Independence, HMS Victory fought in the First and Second Battles of Ushant and the Battle of Cape Spartel.” Where the hell are Ushant and Spartel? We have Bunker Hill Day in Massachusetts and Lexington and Concord…so how could I have no clue about the “American Revolutionary War battles of Ushant and Spartel.” http://www.hms-victory.com/content/history/battles Anyway, wasn’t Massachusetts the star of the show when it comes to the Revolution? I certainly do have a skewed sense of history! Good thing I’m doing this boating thing so I can see there really is more to the world than Eastern Mass and the Red Sox.

Here’s the quick simple version…… which was discovered by a witty Frommer’s guide while researching sheep. Obviously no one takes the direct route to the Battle of Ushant…one must stumble over it looking up something else.

“To my surprise, I learned that this sheep has a tie, albeit a loose one, to the American Revolution. It seems that Ushant, a tiny island off the coast of Brittany on the south end of the English Channel, was the site of a nasty naval battle between the French and the English in 1778. France, loath to pass up a chance to attack the British, had recently decided to enter the war on the American side. The British sent out a fleet to keep an eye on French naval activities in Brest, and the French sent out a fleet to see what the British were up to. They met up somewhere around Ushant, where the weather got so bad that neither side managed to do much damage to the other, nor could either claim a victory. Each fleet came home to cranky officials and much political squabbling.” http://useless-paris.blogspot.co.uk/ Margie Rynn author of Frommer’s EasyGuide to Paris 2014.

Anyway, this email is about something totally unrelated…. “ 16:30 Friday : Two ice sculptors have been sculpting a Christmas tree this afternoon on the large pontoon in the centre basin.” This email was from Gus and Helen cruisers here at the marina. So Randal and I got ourselves together…a long coat will cover flannel stay on the boat pants…and went to take some photos. The sculpture is in the Central, show off basin where “events” take place. We’re in the west basin with the construction, but it’s okay. Each basin has an advantage, ours is closest to the tube, at least it is when the construction isn’t blocking the walkway. Temperatures will be in the low 50s tomorrow so not sure how long these sculptures will last.

And thank you all for your comments about our approaching lifestyle change. It will be interesting!