Where am I?
This photo quiz is a little different from previous ones, in that I don't actually know the answer myself. I am hoping one of my clever readers will tell me where this photo was taken and that I will then have an "AHAH!" moment and my memory of this day will come flooding back.
So here is what I do know and what I don't know (as best as I can remember.)
I have never owned a Laser with a sail with a rainbow stripe like that.
I have never owned a sail like that.
It looks like the sail number starts 11xxxx. I have never owned a Laser with a number in that series.
My first Laser was number 93933 and it had an orange hull and orange sail. It was bought in the early 1980s.
My next Laser was number 134628 and it had a teal hull and a white sail. It was bought in 1988.
So the sail in the photo was from a Laser sold in the mid 1980s.
So if it's not my Laser why am I sailing it?
Maybe I was doing some sailing course where the boats and sails were provided?
The fact that I appear to be being followed by a motor boat suggests it might be from some kind of course or coaching session.
Or perhaps I just rented or chartered that Laser when I was on vacation somewhere?
Or borrowed it from a friend?
The fact that I seem to have some hair left in this photo, and was wearing that red non-USCG approved "bubble wrap" PFD suggests that this photo was probably taken in the 1980s or early 1990s.
I moved from England to New Jersey at the end of 1988. So the place could be either of those.
Or France. Or Spain. Or somewhere else in the north-eastern US. Or Canada. Or Texas. Or Florida. Or somewhere else that I don't even remember visiting in this years.
It's just a hunch (and I could be wrong) but I think the most likely explanation for this photo was that it was taken on a sailing course I went on before leaving the UK.
I do remember doing one such course at the National Sailing Centre in Cowes and another one at the Calshot Activities Center. So this photo could have been taken on the Isle of Wight or somewhere on the mainland opposite IOW.
Or did I do some other sailing course in a place I can't remember now?
That big black cylindrical object on the right of the photo might be the best clue to the location.
Could that be one of those gas holders aka gasometers that you used to see all over England? If so, remember this photo is probably almost 30 years old, so that gasometer may have been demolished by now.
Or maybe it's not a gasometer at all, but some historic coastal defence tower? It's hard to tell.
Anyway, that object would surely be remembered by anyone who had sailed this waterway. (Except apparently not by me!)
So please help me! Where am I?
3 comments:
I think it's Cowes, or at least up the Medina - there was gas works or some kind of storage tanks up the river but it's the two small dark boxes above the horizon just to the left of the storage tanks, I think they are the old Hammerhead crane - now a historic site,
http://www.visitisleofwight.co.uk/things-to-do/the-1912-cowes-hammerhead-crane-p1041641
Thanks so much to the sharp-eyed Bursledon Blogger. I think you are correct. I was hoping you would be able to identify the location.
The River Medina at Cowes was one alternative I researched on Google Earth and I couldn't see that black cylinder anywhere. So perhaps it has been removed in the last 30 years.
My old sailing club at Taplow Lake in Berkshire used to have a sailing weekend away at the National Sailing Centre in Cowes every fall and I went with them to that on a couple of occasions I think. But, judging by what I am wearing, this photo was probably taken in the summer so it was probably on the sailing course I did there. I don't remember all the details but I vividly remember one evening race we entered and a couple of other outings. Probably worth another post on those memories alone.
Done a bit more research and I now have photographic evidence of that black gas holder upriver from the NSC at Cowes. More to come in separate post. Thanks again BB.
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