I was intrigued to see, downstream from Blue Mistress, two masts of a large schooner towering over the normal view. Continue reading
A visit to Appledore
3 – Bideford Bar
I have never crossed Bideford Bar but it seems that I have known it all my life. I thought I would check it out. Who knows? I may yet get the chance.
Many sailors have crossed this Bar, and many still do. To them I say, please bear with me. I am doing what I should do – looking at the water, reading the entries in the pilot book, looking at the chart. Also, I am looking at it from two different viewpoints – what it’s like now and what it might have been like in the nineteenth century. I have always had problems envisaging what it would have been like to live in a castle that now stands in ruins, but envisaging being at sea in a wooden sailing ship is different altogether – the sea is the same sea, the wind the same wind.
That there was a gale blowing and rain was in the air last week just made it more interesting. The outside bar was hidden in the murk . . .
A visit to Appledore
2 – Richmond Dry Dock
From my grandfather, via my mother, we had inherited a box of flood-affected old photographs of sailing vessels, including a large number of my grandfather’s trading ketch Ceres. Among these were several of Ceres in dry dock.
A visit to Appledore
1- The Maritime Museum
Over the years I have mentioned the trading ketch, Ceres, which belonged in turn to my great-great-grandfather, my great-grandfather and finally my grandfather. I promised myself that, when I finished the day-job and had more time, I would further explore her history.
Last week, I visited Appledore in North Devon – three reasons: to visit the small and excellent Maritime Museum , to find Richmond Dry-dock – (in the photograph of Ceres below), and to look at Bideford Bar across the entrance to the Taw/Torridge estuary.
When I arrived, a gale was blowing and there was rain in the air.
Seeking maritime history in Ireland
On Friday we were in Cobh (pronounce Cove) – the port of Cork, looking at “the statue of Annie Moore and her two brothers. Annie Moore became the first ever emigrant to be processed in Ellis Island in the United States when it officially opened on 1st January 1892.
Three images of a dockyard
Passing Cattewater Wharves, the tide hurrying me on . . .
An anchorage at Cawsand
There was no wind as I motored into the Sound on Wednesday morning.
A different solution – staying in the bunk
The bunks on Blue Mistress are narrow. Being a relatively small boat this is natural. The problem is, I am used to wider beds at home and tend to turn over expansively. In the boat, that would mean landing on the cabin sole.
A bird in a hurry
A chance photo . . .
“Figures that clothe facts are in fashion . . .”
In the Preface of the book I have just started to read*:
Beyond Steeple Point 