Wednesday

Skived off this afternoon, went for a picnic with Langstone Cutters at the landing place on Long Island, part of the bird reserve. Weather was perfect. More pics here.

The Langstone Archipelego

Went out with Langstone Cutters in the Clayton skiff Mabel today. The forecast predicted a heavy shower midday, so we got out the instant we could get Mabel in - she lives on a mooring 200 yards out in the harbour that only gets wet a couple of hours before high tide.

It was a bit breezy and the wide expanse of Langstone Harbour gets quite choppy compared with the relatively narrow channels of Chichester Harbour, so we stayed at the top end where the waves were more manageable. This also gave us a chance to row round the islands.
North and South Binness Islands, Long Island and Baker's Island were dotted with lights in the Second World War to distract attention from Portsmouth on one side and the air base at Thorney Island on the other.
It got blitzed regularly, according to the fascinating Langstone Harbour WW2 Decoy Site:

"To help protect Portsmouth from German night bombing, a series of 'Q' decoy sites were built in Langstone Harbour and on Sinah Common Hayling Island. These elaborate constructions consisted of two main elements. Firstly a string of carefully positioned structures were erected, mainly in the north of the harbour, which when lit from the inside would mimic the effect of light shining through chinks in doors and windows in a carelessly blacked out area. The second, and most crucial element of the deception plan was the deployment of decoy fires known as "Starfish" sites. These decoys were designed to present to the enemy pilots a convincing illusion of a city under attack.
This site was often dramatically successful; on the night of 17/18 April 1941, over 140 enemy aircraft were lured away and un-loaded in excess of 200 air-dropped munitions, originally intended for the City of Portsmouth, into Langstone Harbour and Farlington Marshes. This was the most successful Q-site operation of the entire war."

The islands are now owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who maintain it as a reserve and very successfully too, judging by the huge flocks of godwits and Brent geese we saw. Then an osprey appeared, majestically soaring overhead, and all the birds buggered off sharpish.

Why Rowing is Better than Sailing

Don't get me wrong, I love sailing and I aim to do a lot more of it when I finally get my sail-assisted Bee rowboat under construction. But look at the picture above. See those tiny little sails? If you can't, click for an enlargement.
They are fellow-members of the Dinghy Cruising Association, and though we all set out from Bedhampton at the same time, I took this picture from the Kench, a
over a mile ahead.
Here they are, arriving. Finally! And waving me off when I discovered I was so cold I would not be able to bend my knees enough to get back in the boat if I didn't go right away.
I had the advantage of the field, of course. The wind was light and right on the nose, ideal for rowing but not so good for the dinghies which had to tack, rather slowly. They were a lot faster on the way back, but still not as fast as me.
Of course, I will get my comeuppance when we go out in a good F5 with the wind against the tide, when they will go jolly fast and I will go home. But today, rowing was better than sailing. Also warmer.
Martin Corrick has been trying to establish the right length of oars for his Topper Cruz, so I lent him a pair of 10ft Plastimos. They are obviously too long. Martin said they were much better than the 7ft ones he got with the boat, but very tiring because of the outboard length. So he is now in the market for a pair of 8ft 6in-ish oars at a reasonable price.