Posts

Support us through the Gosport Community Lottery

NCI Gosport continually works hard to obtain dontations to keep the station running. One way you can help us is to participate in the Gosport Community Lottery. Christmas is just around the corner - and so is this month's Super Draw ! This weekend, one lucky supporter will win a £1,000 gift card for John Lewis & Waitrose! Prefer a little more flexibility? The lucky winner can even choose to take the cash! The Gosport Community Lottery Super Draw gives you new and exciting ways to play, and benefit NCI Gosport at the same time.  How does that work ?  NCI Gosport will receive a proportion of the lottery proceeds... without needing any extra payment from you. You can purchase weekly tickets, or you can choose to just buy tickets for the Super Draw week, meaning more flexibility and less commitment, whilst still supporting NCI Gosport. Existing supporters can even choose to TOP-UP their tickets just for the week of the Super Draw! Just visit https://www.gosportcommunityl...

Temporary Closure Now Ended

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Following our temporary closure, we are pleased to announce that Gosport NCI will reopen at 9am on Wednesday 22 November and will operate as normal thereafter. 

Station opening schedule

Reopening schedule. We are happy to say that NCI Gosport will be open on November 16, 17 18 and 19, but will be closed on November 20 and 21 for further repair work.   Further opening will be announced here but is dependent on the completion of repairs.

Gosport Community Lottery

While we are still waiting to hear when we can reopen our station, here's a little good news.... ... firstly, the Gosport Community Lottery has raised a wonderful £271 for us in the past year !  Thanks to everyone who supports us through this lottery. ... secondly, the Lottery has announced that this December the BIGGEST EVER Super Draw prize is a whopping £3,000 bonus !  So this is a great time to register and buy lottery tickets, or, if you already play the lottery, to buy more.  Just visit the lottery web site at this address... https://www.gosportcommunitylottery.co.uk/ and nominate Gosport Coastwatch as the charity you want to support. If you prefer to support the National Coastwatch station at Gosport in other ways, please take a look at our web site here  https://www.nci.org.uk/stations/supporting-us-your-donations for other ways to donate.

Temporary Closure

Following recent heavy weather , we regret to say that the National Coastwatch station at Gosport is closed temporarily.   We hope to be able to reopen soon.   In the meantime, for radio checks on Channel 65 we suggest you call our sister station, Lee-on-Solent using the callsign 'Lee NCI'.

I Nearly Killed Someone The Other Day...

A friend in one of the local sailing clubs sent us this article today; it's very much related to the earlier article here about Signal Flags, and tells the story of a nasty situation that could happen to anyone... I nearly killed someone the other day... We were returning from our spring cruise to Cornwall taking advantage of easterly winds all the way down channel to Fowey and westerly winds all the way home. We had started motoring early morning across Lyme Bay on the leg from Brixham to Weymouth but by the time we were two thirds across it was blowing a stiff westerly F5, blasting us across the Portland Race 2½ miles south of the Bill then swinging us north east to avoid the Shambles, aiming to leave Portland breakwater to port. With the sun out, and the wind on our quarter, it was “champagne sailing” making around 8 knots through the water plus a knot or two of fair tide, giving a SOG of well over 10 knots. We had passed numerous lobster pots throughout the morning and especia...

In Command Of an Antarctic Supply Ship

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The Watchkeepers of NCI Gosport come from many and various diferent backgrounds.   Unsurprisingly, given the population of Gosport, some come from the armed services, and others have long maritime experience.   Others bring skills honed in industrial or commercial arenas.   But some have seen and done things that the rest of us can only dream about…   as in this article sent in by a Watchkeeper who, for reasons of anonymity, we will call Captain ‘SJL’. Despite his grey hair and beard, he stands more watches that any other Watchkeeper and you may hear him on our VHF Channel 65 from time to time. In Command Of an Antarctic Supply Ship Submitted by Captain ‘SJL’, MBF RD RNR It was in November 1974 that I took over command of the RRS Bransfield, the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) ice-strengthened logistics vessel supporting the 5 scientific research stations that BAS operated in the British Antarctic Territory. The RRS Bransfield, 4816 grt, 1577 nrt, l...