Having arrived on Poole the summer ended ( again) with strong winds and rain forecast for the rest of the week. Avis and Nigel returned home on Thursday and Knut and I explored Poole with Knut leaving on Saturday. Turns out this was a festival weekend in Poole, celebrating Harry Paye day, with parades and more or less everyone dressed as pirates. Old Harry was a splendid fellow, attacking the French and Spanish at random, and on his break from this he helped push the Welsh back into the mountains. Here is an extract from Wiki for those wanting to learn more :

Harry Paye

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Henry Paye (died 1419), also known as Harry, Page or Arripaye (to the Spanish), was a privateer and smuggler from Poole, Dorset in the late 14th and early 15th century, who became a commander in the Cinque Ports fleet.

Paye led naval raids along the coast of France and Spain from Normandy through to the Bay of Biscay and Cape Finisterre. He burnt Gijon and Finisterra to the ground, taking many prisoners and exacting ransoms, and in 1398 he raided the Church of Saint Mary in Finisterra and stole a valuable crucifix.^[1] He also helped quell the Welsh revolts brought about by Owain Glyndŵr, defeating a French fleet sent to aid the uprising.^[2]

In 1405, a combined fleet of French and Spanish ships attacked Paye's native town of Poole in retaliation for Paye's raids. The attackers looted arms and stores and set fire to a warehouse before they were driven back to their ships by the townspeople. Although Paye was not present in Poole during the raid, his brother was among those killed by the attackers.^[1][3]During an expedition in 1406, he captured 120 French prizes off the coast of Brittany laden with iron, salt and oil.

Paye died in 1419 and was buried in the parish church at Faversham, Kent,^[4] where under the name of 'Henry Pay, Armiger' his death is recorded by a monumental brass which includes a coat of arms, paly, a mascle voided and flory.^[5][6]

Paye is celebrated in the annual Harry Paye Charity Fun Day parade held in Poole every June, ^[7] while Rosemary Manning wrote a children's novel based on his life, Arripay (1963).

I suspect old ‘Arri would be surprised to see so many Jack Sparrows wandering the streets in 2012, particularly since the main Depp lookalike was based in a pimped up Transit Van.  However, the Tall Ship Lord Nelson was there to add some square rigger atmosphere, and there was a lot of canon fire and general mayhem. Unlucky for the people of Poole that the weekend was awful, with strong winds and torrential rain, but in true Brit fashion they soldiered on ; Arri would have been proud of them.

The pics show some scenes from Poole...including the Old Town. There are worse places to be stuck.