bn1&bn3 Albion
Well-known member
Went on one of those tourist boats that leave the marina and go out to the west pier and back, the weather was shocking and they almost canceled it. Was more like a theme park ride than a tour.
Dont remember seeing any in partcularly rough weather...but i remember we were unable to catch a 'trawler' ... thing was motoring...I used to love it when we came across soviets at sea...our officers would be rushing about with notebooks, binoculars, charts, and all manner of nonsense....look at their ship, and see their offficers doing the same... whereas the crew of both ships were down at the back waving to each other haha...
oow manoeuvres wit
h the ruskies ha ha ha
As it happens, yes I've seen Brighton from a boat on two occasions:
a) When HMS Brighton, a Rothsay type anti-submarine frigate, was moored next to Brighton Marina, as a Naval Cadet we were transfered out to the ship on a motor launch and given a tour round.
b) In a small dinghy when sailing off Shoreham Harbour.
I have to say both occasions were a memorable day for different reasons. Sadly HMS Brighton was scrapped just 4 years after my tour round her. Ignominiously she was used as target practice between decomissioning in 1981 ( probably why she was off the Marina ) and scrapping in 1985.
On attempting to return to Shoreham harbour in the dinghy we were caught on an ebb tide and spent most of the late afternoon floundering around in front of the Harbourmasters / Coastguard tower and the RNLI Station, getting absolutely nowhere as the wind was being stolen by a large block of flats every time we attempted a tack. Eventuallly we gave up, pulling up alongside the jetty, clambering up to the tower and requested a tow upstream. After much delay a coaster came to our aid and whilst we were being towed up to the yacht club we passed the club rescue launch heading out to the Channel in the oppposite direction.