Portsmouth Mine Hunter joins in with 40th Anniversary of Harbour Festival

HMS Cattistock, a Portsmouth based Mine Hunter travelled to Bristol last week to support the Bristol Harbour Festival celebrating it’s 40^th year.

Early on the Friday morning, the 29 year old GRP hulled ship started its passage into the approaches of the River Avon just after midnight and entered the docks through two swing bridges just before rush hour having negotiated the tricky upper reaches of a river which is mud at low tide.  Thankfully the ship entered on the flooding tide and stayed clear of the mud!

The Festival, which has been a huge success for the past 40 years, played home to over 250,000 people for the weekend.

The celebrations included live music, acrobats, and a variety of water-based activities such as rowing competitions all designed to celebrate the city’s important maritime heritage.

Located within the City Docks in the very heart of Bristol, HMS Cattistock dominated her area and acted as the figure head for a rather large military gathering.

The Joint Arena played host to 3 RN warships (HMS Raider and Tracter, P2000 University Royal Naval Unit Patrol Boats, were also fortunate to attend in a stand off from their summer deployment) as well as an Army Warrior APC and an RAF Typhoon cockpit.

All three ships opened their gangways to visitors over the weekend and more than 5000 visitors to the festival came on board.  The ship’s company of HMS Cattistock were able to convey to the guests exactly how the Royal Navy defends their interests from the sea.

Lieutenant James Carpenter, from Bristol, said;

“It was an excellent opportunity to return home in a slightly different way to normal.

Approaching the city from the sea was a unique experience, the views were fantastic and the overall experience was quite emotional.”

The Festival was spread over a considerable area across the City Centre and Docks, live music poured from most venues and people really got into the party spirit.

Overall the weekend was a huge success which allowed HMS Cattistock and her Ship’s Company to savour the delights the City and Festival had to offer.

She is now due to return to her base port of Portsmouth before shutting up for a well earned Summer Leave period.