Portsmouth is celebrating its 400th anniversary (1623-2023), and part of that was a tall-ships flotilla scheduled for Thursday, July 27th. But the mere threat of thunderstorms canceled it, as it turns out, for no good reason. I was there, on the water, and I saw the tall ships and the weather.
The storm clouds looked impressive, some “cool-looking” lightning off in the distance, but the seas were never rough, and it rained for all of ten minutes on the river. By the time 6 pm rolled around when the event was to start, there were even calmer waters, no rain, bleeding into a beautiful sunset (pics of that below as well).
In other words, there was no good reason to move the flotilla to the 29th.
Captain Jack Kimball invited me, my wife, and a few others, and we were on the water when the cancelation (delay) was announced. It was okay. We had a great day and took pictures.
There were to be four of five tall ships. We saw five, and I got decent pictures of a few; only one under sail, sadly, but all very cool.
And some different views…
And… the sunset. Lots of those – all taken from the Riverhouse Restaurant ‘Dock’ in Portsmouth.
Note: The original version referenced Thursday, July 28th. It should be on the 27th. This was corrected after publication.
