From: Colin Rennison Subject: The Battle of Trafalgar and all that.... Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 16:31:39 +0100 Hi all, It's 200 years that Admiral Nelson defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar, so there are a series of events to mark the anniversary. One of these has been four days of the International Festival of the Sea at the naval base in Portsmouth, on the South coast of England. During the festival, the base has become h9ome to a number of British and visiting warships, tall ships, exhibitions, and re-created street scenes from the early 1800's, complete with street actors. We went down there on Saturday, deciding to let the train take the strain rather than have to cope with the inevitable parking and traffic problems. A little like Adam at Wimbledon, I wasn't sure how well bare feet would be accepted, so took along a pair of flip flops in my rucksack just in case. We made it through security and the bag searches at the gate without a hitch, and then narrowly avoided the roving press-gang looking for crew! We'd planned our first stop to be HMS Illustrious, the Royal Navy's top aircraft carrier, so headed to the far side of the base. A short diversion, however, saw us looking round the two British Antarctic Survey ships that were in port, including some interesting discussions with the scientists on board first time I'd seen an angler fish, albeit a dead one! Walking up the gang plank i did wonder if there would be a Health and Safety issue with bare feet, but nobody batted an eyelid - indeed, some people's choice of footwear (especially flip flops and ladies with heels) looked positively dangerous on the steep steps between decks. The queue for Illustrious was lengthy, but we were soon aboard - again, none of the Royal Navy sailors batted an eyelid. The aircraft hanger featured lots of interesting displays, whilst standing on the flight deck (which had one of those "sticky" surfaces that I always find quite wearing on my soles) in amongst the helicopters and Sea Harriers was a very special experience. And, as spotless as the ship was, it was good for very black soles, too! Leaving the warship area, we grabbed some lunch, looked at Ellen MacArthur's "Kingfisher" Vendee Globe yacht, which was moored next to Sir Francis Chichester's Gipsy Moth IV - quite a technological comparison. Neither were open for viewing, sadly. After watching the main combat display of the day (lots of helicopters, Harriers, landing craft and Royal Marines) we headed off to the Tall Ships, looking round a Polish one and a Russian ship that is the fastest Tall Ship in the world. It was nice to feel the wooden decks beneath my soles. Once again, now questions about my feet from the very polite and helpful sailors. All in all, a great day - and some great barefooting too. I didn't see any other barefoot people, so they all missed out on some standard tarmac, some great old wooden bridges, metal plating on the ships, super-smooth wooden decks, metal rungs of various descriptions, gravel, grass, "sticky" flight decks - and the blackest soles I've had since Namibia . A great day. Colin -- Colin Rennison Deddington, Oxfordshire, England URL: www.renni.demon.co.uk