Shame about the weather .............

[Norman]

pity easter is so early this year , almost seems like four days wasted in the crap forcasts we`re having ........

I remember the times as a kid when the biggest worry at easter was the eggs melting in the sun on the back window of the car on a trip out to the seaside ............. so much for global warming, more like global taxation with the excuse of global warming .......................

 

[JediX]

typing this as its snowing here and windy as fek, good thing is it wont last and soon the sea's will be shouting for the boats

 

[Oblickta]

I wouldn't count your chickens mate, this could be the end of the winter westerlys and the start of the summer northerlys

 

[mark]

a very seasonal easter scene at our back door this morning when I crawled out of me pit:

whats gannin on!

 

[willywetegg]

Bloody hell Mark, we got next to nowt here mate.

Jim.

 

[Norman]

oops mark, I see you even needed the shovel to get out LOL not bad here just extremely windy .......

 

[mark]

much more to come apparently, today and tomorrow. we were supposed to be heading north this weekend on a Pansy mission, having to make do with looking at pictures and work out how much foie gras and gin we'll need for the trip back

 

[Norman]

aye mark, got to have the provisions for the crew, red wine goes down well as it`s easy to keep at room temperture, just stick it in the engine well for a while. There again mybe this weather would be better serving white wine direct from the cooler (the north wind)
good luck to yous two with pansy, cant wait to get a look around her.

cheers

Norm

 

[mark]

aye mark, got to have the provisions for the crew, red wine goes down well as it`s easy to keep at room temperture, just stick it in the engine well for a while. There again mybe this weather would be better serving white wine direct from the cooler (the north wind)
good luck to yous two with pansy, cant wait to get a look around her.

cheers

Norm

Engine well??


err..... measures about 15 feet by 18 feet!

both itching to just get her back, then a week of pandemonium getting her out, scrubbed and antifouled, which will be neither quick nor cheap I guess - nigh on 50 foot long and 7 foot draft thats a lot(£) of paint! and anodes

knowing our(my) luck its gonna be months of mad notherlies and easterlies holding up the trip back, that said, she's good for bigger seas than I'd normally want to be out in

 

[boblydon]

when you looking to bring her to her new home ??? so we can have the flags out to welcome her

 

[mark]

one plan is set off early 12th april, be back late on the 13th early 14th, might be a bit soon though, need a couple of weekends up there first to get some extra techsmology on board and build Ell's cage

so maybe 26th...

ruled by the tides a bit to get out of the canal, need to get out on high tide, as there's anything up to 6knots of tide running into the inverness firth, which I don't fancy shoving against, plus if there's a lot of fresh water running in from the river against the incoming tide it gets a bit hairy with overflows and eddies all over the shop, so want to scoot out on the ebb, but the sea lock doesn't open till 8am and want to avoid 2 nights at sea if we can!

might just have to bite the bullet though and go when the weather says so, wouldn't fancy it with these northerlies though

got 2 routes plotted, one keeps us reasonably close inshore till the bell rock, the other is a short cut, straight line from fraserburgh to eyemouth, but will take us about 60 miles off at one point but will knock maybe 6 hours off

 

[Norman]

do you have any graphic views of your route mark just out of interest ...

 

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

And how about a schematic of Ells cage , also I'm interested in the drainage you're intending to use ..... saliva and vomitting will obviously be an issue.

 

[mark]

do you have any graphic views of your route mark just out of interest ...

hard to get it all on 1 pic with any clarity, but... out the canal goes like:

then the squeeze through chandory point

scary bit about the first 2 is that its narrow, currents every where, moving shoals from year to year, some of which are less than a metre at low water, pansy draws nearly 2 and a half metres

hundred miles or so of this:

then turn the corner at fraserburgh and straight home, hopefully can make it past peterhead/rattray head before night fall, reputed to be the worst seas on the east of scotland with tides colliding all over the place, deep holes and shallow reefs, plus masses of oil industry support vessels and oil rigs for good measure (thank god for radar!):

about 270 miles there, if we plumb for a straight line from peterhead to eyemouth, it'll nock heaps off, but will be a long way out

have order extra large pampers to deal with some bodily emmisions, one of our party has suggested using the devon method for drainage (drill a hole in the bottom of the boat), but not sure of it effectiveness

the engine room is reasonably soundproof, so holding facilities are likely to be constructed in there (next to the pedals)

 

[Norman]

Wow mark / ell quite an epic journey that, thanks for the heads up on the maps. Looks like you got all the horrors in one journey, the start being a navigation nightmare then the latter part of the journey an ocean voyage .......................... make good mine friends check everything 20 times, good luck ......

 

[mark]

deliberately plotted one or 2 waypoints over some wrecks for a little R&R along the way, but imagine there'll be plenty fags smoked an nails chewed till we get a few hours under our belts

got my chartplotter off the last boat to go on, but going to stick a 14" tft screen and a PC (or a mac if I can scrounge the S57 charts from my mate at UKHO) on as a 'geet big plotter' as well. hook it up to the radar to get an overlay and AIS as the busiest bit will probably be in the middle of the night so want as much info as I can possibly get.

we're gonna draw straws for who gets that watch!

 

[Norman]

Looks like you`ll BOTH get the short one there . lol and most of the way come to think of it.

enjoy

Norm

 

[mark]

we've press ganged at least one other so far (marc)....

 

[Norman]

haha marc ???? with his reputation ............????
sailing into north sea ferries and all that, dead batteries in VHF, and ignoring warnings in firing ranges ...... LOL yeah he`ll be fine , at for sure he`ll take some brilliant pictures .........


good luck lads. it`ll be great I`m sure , just be safe.

Norm