Portsmouth is an ancient harbour still very much in use today with lots of ferries and shipping, yachts and all manner of water-craft you can imagine. This view is of one of the harbour outlets for an Isle of Wight ferry, viewed from Gunwharf Quays waterfront shopping complex. The Royal yacht Leander was berthed there while we were in Portsmouth to the right of this picture.

Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower, it was supposed to be completed for the Millenium but wasn't. It's 170 metres high and when finished will have viewing platforms near the top for a great view of the harbour area.

Spinnaker Tower's backside - pretty don't you think??

Spinnaker Tower from the side... and a couple of catamaran hull ferries thrown in for good measure!

Not far from the Historic Dockyard was this 'tall ship' which is a training vessel for those keen on learning to sail the oldfashioned way. With actual SAILS and not just a measly two.

At the Naval Base we were surprised to see these military craft lashed together. You know it's peace-time when 3 different nationalities ships are side by side!!

On our harbour cruise... the thin blue (watery) line was with us for a few minutes making sure we were behaving ourselves....

If you look at the larger sized picture there is actually two tall ships here, we think they were also training ships like the other one. The following week was an International Festival of the Sea so they were probably in port for that.

Here is view of the harbour from the deck of the HMS Warrior. You can see in the background there was a very dark cloudy sky which was brewing up an impressive lightning and thunder storm - lightning from sky to earth and it went on for a good hour or so.

Also taken from the HMS Warrior, here is her modern-day equivalent.