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!