DINNER WITH THE GIRLS... NIPPERDOG STYLE

Glad I made the most of last weeks great weather.. A bit of a shakedown the day before left me ready to just go out and do what I recon I'm pretty good at.. RELAXING.  It was also pretty cool to get the mama out there for the evening.

Using my trusty REPALA blue sliver, I managed to catch another nice school Bass and this time thought I'd better keep this one for an imprompto beach barbie down woody bay. Muma's pretty at home on a boat so I didn't have to worry too much about the hard, stoney beach landing.

This part of the island's coast is a real favorite of mine, the beach round the corner is up for sale for a squillion quid...

As I'm sure you all know, I'm a big fan of beach fires.. I think its because nobody owns beaches usually, so nobody can turf you away. High quality relaxing. For me, I always feel its a shame when people turn up at the beach with a foil disposable box and all the crap that goes with it and you know it'll end up stuffed in the hedge.. Can't people have a bit of style and learn how to light fires the old fashioned way, all it takes is some dry grass or dead reeds for some kindling and a few twigs.

This fire only needed a lifespan of half an hour to cook this fish.. A good thing with the lack of wood just here, but we will go into considderable detail on beachfire ettiquette during the season.

For now lets just prey for some decent summer weather, and enjoy the view...

THE SEASON BEGINS WITH A BASS

At last... after some considderable no from the computer, we have a yes, and a yes!! 

I generally walk away from machines when things go funky, I'd like to say its self control, knowing as I do that theres a great chance I'll throw the thing out the window.. but really I'm lazy when it comes to technology as I see it as time not spent relaxing somewhere.

Having settled into my new job.. Kinda, Its been great to have a weekend of sun and the chance to get out the MARINE BABOON and try my hand with my new spinnin' rod..

With typical presicion, by the time we got the monkey down to waters edge.. it clouded over! I was gutted, mostly because my partner, who loves being on the water even more than me, always seems to miss the best days. So much of the day was cold and over cast, but the early evening came out beautiful. Tara learned some pretty impressive casting skills.

We tried some trolling along the South coast of the Island for some bass, a great sport fish, the expensive one you might order at the restaraunt. I figured it to be a bit early for all this nonsense but wanted to try this new rod             nipperdog rating of rod (leeda 8' spinner, £22.99)  7/10.

The day was really a dinghy shakedown for all the missions I have in mind for this season, so it was quite a suprise to strike into a couple of school (little) bass and some garfish, wierd lookers with green flesh and false hopes.

Its been a fantastic start to the season so far and with a few more equipment purchases I'm ready to go and seek out the spots to wet your appitite for getting out there yourself..

 

Next time on  ALL AT SEA I'll be trying to catch some more fish, but hopfully trying to cook up on a camp fire somewhere...

LAME SWANS AND 'VAVs'

Well... where do I start? 

My much anticipated trip across the Atlantic on a Swan 47' took a bit  of a turn for the worse last month.. In fact, it was to be a turn straight back to port!!
After a normal flight and a couple of days sorting out the boat in Gros Islet, we set off North, up the islands towards better wind. With 35oC heat and some colossal downpours, it looked like we were in for great trip, albeit a long one. Its a big 'ol bit of water when you look down on it from the plane for 8 hours..

Within a few miles, water, water, water... with gallons of water coming in from the rudder stock in just half an hour, we had no alternative but to turn back and get the boat lifted for a survey. The owner of 'Live Edge' had already told George the skipper that there had been a small leak on the previous years trip across from the Azores at the rudder stock.. Ignorance is bliss!! The survey revealed a completely sodden fiberglass skeg which had been causing the the rudder bearing to wear prematurely, also, with no sealing 'packing' in the packing case we would almost curtainly have spent some time this summer in a liferaft!

                                                     ('VISION' the Gros Islet boatman)

So as it turned out, with all the easter holiday makers taking most of the flights back to the UK we were stuck in paradise for a while, only to hear a Volcano would add even more time to our stay!

With no Internet to blog on I set about doing some fairly nice diving at a beachsite at the end of the runway near the hotel where we were staying. Pretty nice collection of fish and coral, even managed to get some underwater footage on camera ( which am now having trouble downloading) which was a lot of fun.

All in all... a bit of a disaster, especially for the skipper, but for me... I got some great news... New Job!

Dan Russell...   Yarmouth Harbour Berthing Master.

So I can't wait to be able to get upto some great missions here on the island this year!

BUSTIN' TO GET DONE...

I've been a bit busy of recent.. A couple of weeks referbing this really lovely Targa 31' came to a conclusion beginning of last week. The owner, having had the boat left in at Cowes for the last couple of years untouched, decided she needed a bit of birthday loving.....

With the hull burnished back with 1000grade and 2000 grade respectivly at a speed of 2500rpm, I think I have managed to bring back her GELCOAT to almost as new. With a quick coat of a carnuba rich Honey wax, she looked a real picture in the slings.

With one of my brothers servicing the twin Volvo inboards/outdrive legs and with her new cleaner hull antifouled with  Black Joton speed 30 she now manages to comfortably reach 38 knots, a good 4 knots faster than when we started!!

Six days of some pretty hard graft paid off I think and jim Bustin' aggreed. There was no problem with my rates, indeed the yard was also happy and they asked me to do another yacht in their yard!

Theres never enough hours in the day... I've just got off the phone to customer from last season who wants some help cruising the Med in his Hallberg Rassey 46'.

NIPPERDOG RATING

KINGSTON MARINA (COWES HARBOUR COMMISSION)

OVERALL SERVICE:  9/10

PRICE:                           8/10

FACILITIES:                9/10

STAFF:                         10/10

Some days, a fish really matters...

I love this time of year, It all becomes possible again... that long awaited fresh mackeral tugging on a line. Looking back at this photo of my brother says it all.

I'm off soon on a trip I've always wanted to do, from the CARRABEAN to the AZORES. I hope to be able  to blog when I arrive but there may be some gaps but the photos will be worth the wait. I hope you will enjoy following this journey.

Its thick fog outside and cold, like winter cold, all over again, so its a great time to look back at some of those classic days when we sparked up the jeeps, hooked up the dinghies, raided the shed for the rollocks and got back to sea...

For all the cruising about on luxary yachts, theres nothing like going on a mission in yer' own boat to somewhere nobody goes to. This is Blackgang on the kindest of days, where there's been over 200 ships lost within spitting distance of this photo, including a Spanish treasure ship (for another day) and my silver ingot ring my sis made...

One day, when the Blackgang gives us another chance, I hope to post in some more detail, our missions here looking for shipwrecks, gold, silver rings and... fish. 

If you're not too fussed about all this activity and just like taking it easy, get yourself a BBQ, take it somewhere interesting and contemplate being all at sea. 

ESCAPE'S return to blighty

Welcome back to the second half of ESCAPE'S voyage to Norway.  

Lying here in RISOR stern to quay are the finest examples of Norways Colin Archer designed ketch rigged pilot vessels. A highlight of sailing season is this regatta... along with the classic racing 8 and 12 meters this beautiful small village comes alive with all sorts of crafty caracters!

These two urchins sailed 180 miles round from Oslo.... We were all pretty impressed with that. I noticed a hairbrush and a teddy bear in the headsail bag. It was evening dresses and makeup down below... Angus even went a bit gooey...for a scot.

The king of Norway has a fantastic 8 meter..Real class.

Once you've been to Norway, Its hard to leave.. I never imagined there could be somewhere so unspoiled, humans just seem to be able to fit in sensibly to the surroundings. I'll be going back someday and if you have the means to sail there.. you will not be disappointed.

I worked in boat yard for years, unfortunatly nothing like this one. I saw a photo from over a hundred years ago showing the same yard taken from the same spot... It hadn't changed one bit. 

I managed to whip up some pretty nice fresh Mackeral fish cakes. With parsely from the last of our on board herb garden and some good ripe tomatoes...  We're all at sea again.

Our return leg was fairly eventful, with pressure from the owner to get back to Scotland, we had little choice in putting to sea with a dodgy forecast. A westerly course to Inverness would take us directly through the oil rigs up here in the North part of the North Sea. At one point, we hove to for practically 24 hours, with water rising in the bielge alarmingly during a period of force 8 wind. Finally working out that water was coming back down bielge pump outlet and into the boat, we avoided becoming another statistic of this notoriously dangerous area.

Finally we reached Inverness and the Caledonian canal. After treating ourselves to the finest and most well deserved COD AND CHIPS in the world we would have the most incredible weather to last us till our final destination...  Carrera marina, Oban.

Classic jaunt to Norway.....

Not so long ago, my brother and I were lucky enough to join 'ESCAPE' on her return voyage to Risor in Norway. Recently relaunched following an extensive re-build at the Lowestoft school of boatbuilding, this  15m Colin Archer is the ultimate cruising version of the legendary ketch-rigged lifeboat  from Norway's past

Rescued  from a mud birth on the Itchen and re-fitted to practically original specification, Escape has to be the most beautiful boat I've ever stepped onto, and I've been pretty lucky with boats on that front!

With a crew of two exeptional boatbuilders, a rescue helecopter pilot (owner) and myself as navigator, all novices, looked set to be a great adventure. Lowestoft-Risor, direct course.

With perfect southwest wind almost the whole way to the SW coast, the fist leg of the mission was incredibly serene. An hour from the Orwell and we could really sense what it would have been like a hundred years earlier.

Some fantastic home made pizzas, a visit from the king of Norway and some adventurous girls on a folkboat later.... We arrived in Risor.