Trafalgar 200
A coffee stop at a National Trust nature reserve on the A3 provided a welcome break and we arrived at Portsmouth at 12.30.
Although we had a good idea of the planned itinerary. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh reviewing the International Fleet in the afternoon; an air display with The Red Arrows etc later in the afternoon; a re-enactment of a Napoleonic sea battle in the evening with a Son et Lumiere; The Illumination of the Fleet; and culminating with a massive firework display, it was not easy to find out what was going on in the afternoon.
There were an estimated 250,000 people there and over 160 Naval vessels from 40 different Countries which were spread out over 2 to 3 miles of the Solent and were a mile of two away from us viewers on Southsea front. 4 enterprising members of our group boarded a ferry to Cowes and thereby passed by several of the war ships and the QE2 and even had a view of the ship of which The Queen was reviewing the Fleet. Others positioned themselves near to giant plasma tv screens and could follow the Queen's review. The rest of us looked on as best we could and had good long distance views of the warships and 40 tall ships that had gathered in the Solent. Those with binoculars were glad to have them. We could have personally viewed from the War ships for only £2000 each per war ship or £500 = £1500 per tall ship, but I had no takers for that surprisingly!
It did seem a long afternoon with lots of people and not much activity but it livened up around 4pm when the mid Summer Monsoon hit and those with umbrellas or rain ponchos were glad of them, the rest got a soaking but an announcement on behalf of Portsmouth City Council Weather station said that the lond expected storm had now passed so all would be well for the Air Display. Inevitably the second monsoon hit 10 minutes later and we got soaked again but it did clear just in time for the Red Arrows to give as good a display as I have ever seen from them followed by a lone Spitfire; the Army Air Service helicoptor display team; and some wonderful stunt flying by a Russian plane that performed as no other plane in the World can. Superb display!
During the evening some of the tall ships with added cannons appeared and sailed back and forth and as it got dark the Son et Lumiere started. There had been much talk and criticism in the press from Nelsons great great great grand-daughter (not quite sure how many greats) that the originally suggested re-enactment of a Napoleonic Sea Battle was being politically correctly down graded to a battle between reds and blues to save rubbing the noses of the French in the dirt. In fact there was no sign of reds and blues that was obvious and the loud speaker accompaniment to the 'battle' was pretty blood-thirsty with first hand shouting from officers and men in the heat of battle of the actual Battle of Trafalgar with full cannon fire etc . It was noisy and dramatic but not really much of a Battle to see, just the Grand Turk which was HMS Victory for the day) , the Sea Cadet training ship Royalist and a few others sailing past with cannons firing from them with added rockets etc.
However the best of the day was still to come. From 10.15 to 10.30 the firework display synchronised by computer to Holsts Planet Suite was sensational. To the accompaniment of 'I vow to thee my Country' we had the incredible fortune to witness the most magnificent; best; and expensive firework display ever seen in this Country. The prior announcement that it would be better than the Millenium display on the Thames was no exaggeration. It lit up the whole of the Solent against the back drop of the Tall ships and war ships and was just breathtaking.
We rejoined our coach in 20 minutes and after another hour or so managed to clear Portsmouth and were back in Folkestone at 3am.
A long tiring day but a most memorable one and we can say that we witnessed a great day in British Naval History. Just a pity that the BBC did not consider it of sufficient merit to show any of it live (except in the news) and then a last minute substitution on Sunday Morning when hardly anyone would have known the programme had been changed to cover it.
Never mind , we were there!!
