The festival will see over 500 vessels congregating in Portsmouth, including over 20 tall ships and craft from 20 naval forces that are taking part in the International Fleet Review on 28 June. Besides being an opportunity to explore some of the vessels, the fleet review programme features music, street scenes, food and military displays.During the Trafalgar 200 weekend from 21-23 October (01403 713500; ), a chain of beacons will be lit across Britain and the Channel Islands. The event's grand finale will be at Nelson's Column.ANYTHING IN SCOTLAND?Scotland's relationship with the sea is also being celebrated with events and a promotion of water-based activities including sea-kayaking, diving and windsurfing ( ). It will encompass trade, fishing, coastal defence and exploration as well as naval power.WHAT ARE THE MAIN EVENTS?The principal event is the International Festival of the Sea (0870 043 3929; ), which takes place from 30 June to 3 July.
It's the idea of the National Maritime Museum, which is co-ordinating this commemoration of the way the sea has affected the lives of Britons for millennia. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT 2005? WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT 2005? The bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson is the pretext for hundreds of events celebrating SeaBritain 2005 (020-8312 8615; ). Still, we'd never be short of chocolates, sweets or fish and chips TRAVELLER'S GUIDESTAYING THERE. For a start you'd have to get one of those chalets on the front that allow you to escape the rain and eat your sandwiches away from the task of blowing up the rubber dinghy. Then there'd be the endless demands to go and ride the bloody thing over the massive waves that crash in from the North Sea. There might be jellyfish or, if it got really hot, a plague of ladybirds that would turn the white hotels red.Plus you'd have to get up early and go and play the cliff-top pitch-and-putt.
And there's walks on the Brig or through the park and the woods that line the ravines down to the beach All in all it sounds like far too good a time. Nowadays you can check into any number of B&Bs or decent hotels. One of the sea-front establishments was voted the best seaside hotel in The Independent's "Ten Best" feature.I'm not sure whether I could manage a whole two weeks there any more. Leave that to Scarborough just up the coast and Castle Howard, set of Brideshead Revisited, which you pass when venturing out this way.When I was publishing Viz, the editors regularly lambasted Filey as the sleepiest place on earth I didn't have the heart to tell them how wrong they were. I'm not sure the sun lounge or the numerous small tea-rooms would have been ready for Texans and the like. More recently the discovery of a deep-sea wreck threatened to disturb the relative anonymity of the place when it was suggested it might be a missing American battleship from the War of Independence The panic soon passed though. Filey Bay stretches from the Brig to the lighthouse 14 miles away at Flamborough.