Portsmouth, England — I saw the Victory Sail Loft at the RN Dock Museum, which also houses the HMS Warrior (first Royal Navy ironclad), HMS Victory, and the Mary Rose museum. In the sail loft is the original Victory fore topsail from the Battle of Trafalgar. The sail is huge — 17 m along the top, 16 m down each side and 24 m along the foot, and it weighs 360 kg even with 90 shot holes in it.

The RN Museum has lots of stuff on the Age of Sail, plus quite a bit on Nelson and the Victory, shown in the image at the left. Most of the Victory is open for viewing except the poop deck which is still in use by the navy. The masts are huge at the base. Very little head room in the lower decks, and too dim to take good photos although I tried a few with flash. I had to walk with my head down in the middle and lower gun decks and bent over in the orlop deck and in the hold. Lots of displays and information boards — a very good museum ship. Victory is still a commissioned Royal Navy Ship — HQ of the Second Sea Lord — Home Fleet or something like that.

I also went to the Spinnaker Tower — a tourist trap from which you can take photos. I got a few, but the scale is quite small. Click on the photo at the left to see a larger version.

TTFN — tomorrow is a travel day to France.