From pillar to post

 Well, I was not wrong about that thunderstorm waking us from our slumber. Looked at the watch to see it was 1.45 am. The storm was nearly overhead, the biggest crash shook MB, gave me a shock too I can tell you! It lasted well over an hour, and the rain was something else. Thankfully, we both managed to get back to sleep and by the time we awoke, the rain had stopped. Gone too were the sunny conditions of yesterday, we were left with low cloud and mizzle, which never improved for the rest of the day.

This morning we would go back to Historic Dockland to finish off seeing HMS Victory and take a short harbour trip to a submarine. Fingers crossed we could park in the same area, and luckily found a spot slightly nearer to the dockland this time. As nothing opened until 10 am, Ian decided to phone Portsmouth council to complain and see if we could get compensation for the camera. Well, talk about going from pillar to post! Ian was kept for ages hanging and having to listen to that monotonous message, "Your call is important, so please stay on the line" over and over again. Then when the call was finally answered, he was told it had nothing to do with them because it wasn't one of their manhole covers I tripped over! "Try the water board instead, "was their suggestion".  We suspected it was a water grate, one of those that has the meters underneath for each house. Another phone call to the Portsmouth water board, this time we were again nearly fobbed off, saying it could be Southern waters fault and not Portsmouth. Anyway, Ian would not let it go, said we had photos and wanted to speak to someone higher up. Eventually, a chap called Robert Hunt came online.Such a nice man, asked if I was okay and said he would send a team to check out the cover straight away. The "I will be back in touch" had us both thinking, yea right!

That longish walk again to see HMS Victory was getting to be second nature by now, we did cheat somewhat when one of those small buggies happened to be heading for us. I hailed it and asked if he could take us to where the Victory was. Such an obliging man, took us right to the entrance. Anyway Lord Nelsons flagship Victoria would have been a sight to behold but for one thing., The main body was all covered in sheeting and scaffolding with only the bow and stern sticking out, very disappointing.. Restoration work was in progress, had been for 14 years, with the end date in another 4 years time. The inside had been restored, and I must say if I thought HMS Warrior was impressive, this was even more so. An audio guide told the story as we went around the ship, most enlightening and culminated at the moment of Nelsons death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The ship was badly damaged during the battle, the masts and hull especially, so when it returned to Britain with Nelson's body on board in December 1805, it was given a major refit.

Nelsons bed.

An age later we emerged into the daylight, and the tour continued down in the dock itself.

 

All in all, this was well worth coming back for. We now had time on our hands, so what to do. Across the harbour was the HMS Alliance, a Class A submarine, and with our multi attraction ticket, this was included, might as well go and see then. 

Only a certain number were allowed on the submarine at any one time, and this was the one time I wished we were not one of the first on board. Fascinating inside, so many knobs, wheels, pulleys, levers etc, training on one of these must take an age. It was narrow, too narrow for those behind to pass, and we felt as we were being hurried along by those getting frustrated at our slow pace, Consequently we both (but Ian in particular) felt rushed and couldn't take it all in. So once out the other side, we made our way back to the ticket office, told the lovely lady how disappointed we were in not being able to stop and look, and, bless her, she let us go back on, on our own and told to take our time. Now that's what I call going above and beyond!

Again our time had run out, the parking ticket was valid only up to 3.00pm and with that good walk back to MB, we knew we would go over the time. One good thing about Ian having to pay for the parking by phone, he could text the number and get another hour put on for the princely sum of £2.20.

On our return we had a good 35 minutes left on the ticket, and because we had heard nothing from Robert Hunt, Ian phoned again. " Sorry, he's not available at the moment", said the receptionist. "I'll get him to phone you back", And what a surprise when he did!  A new cover had to be fitted, Robert thanked Ian for reporting it and asked for our address so he could send "the wife some flowers as an apology"! Shame Ian had to decline the offer on my behalf, but with us not getting back to FS for another couple of weeks, there was no way I could have received them. But that wasn't all. The claim for the camera was valid, and tomorrow someone from the department will get back to us asking for more details. Looks like my new camera won't be breaking our bank after all!

Another night at the Solent car park, and tomorrow I should get my new camera delivered to Curry's. It probably won't be until mid-afternoon, so if the weather is clear in the morning, it will be to the Spinnaker tower we go.