Mixing it with the Royals

Charmary in the Royal Clarence Marina

In Gosport we berthed in the Royal Clarence marina. This is a Transeurope marina and is based in a new development in what used to be the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard. The Royal Clarence Victualling Yard was set up in the early 1830s as an expansion of the Weevil Yard. This was perhaps slightly too honest a name for a yard that produced ships biscuits – biscuits that were generally full of weevils by the time the sailors got round to eating them. The yard was renamed after the Duke of Clarence when it was expanded to become the main victualling yard for the navy at Portsmouth. The yard had its own mill, bakery, slaughterhouse and cooperage – buildings which are still there and have been very sympathetically restored.

Pottering through the Looe to Portsmouth

Summary: Brighton to Gosport. 49.8 miles in 7 hours and 45 minutes. Motored most of the way with very little wind and very little visibility. Ended up motoring blind through fog for around an hour.

Horse Sand Fort

We left Brighton around 9.30am aiming for the Looe Channel off Selsey Bill and then heading round to Gosport. Shortly after leaving Brighton we got a bit of breeze on the beam and managed to sail for a couple of hours, but in fairly limited visibility. Within half an hour of leaving we lost visibility of the coast and didn’t see it again until near Portsmouth. It was then pretty much the same story as yesterday. The wind would die, so we turned the engine on. Then a little breeze would come back and we optimistically turned the engine off and sailed for a while, then the wind died and we turned the engine on and then ….. In the middle of all this we did get a quite a nasty patch of fog for around an hour with almost zero visibility. We debated turning around, but it cleared sufficiently to carry on through the Looe Channel and then round to Portsmouth.