Old Gaffers in action. I hope they won’t mind me saying that…
The latest bulletin from the Old Gaffers Round Britain Challenge 10 UK and seven Dutch boats under way are now scattered along the south coast with the largest boat, pilot cutter Annabel J, the furthest west.
Annabel J has an AIS transponder so she can be tracked via live ships tracking sites such as www.marinetraffic.com – the other boats can be followed via the various blogs via links on the OGA’s special website www.oga50.org, where a new link combines data on the position of the boats from all available sources.
Earlier the boats attended a party and a parade of sail in Southampton, and had to delay for gales at Plymouth.
The OGA’s new historical travelogue website is following the progress of the fleet and illustrating its progress with fascinating stories from old accounts and images of the areas they pass.
Also check out the OGA remarkable website telling stories of the sea and our coasts: www.sailing-by.org.uk. For example, here’s Daniel Defoe writing pretty scathingly about Kent’s biggest South Coast port: Dover: freight, mail and mackerel