Remembering Bonnie

This week we lost a blogging friend when Bonnie, behind the Frogma blog, passed on. I never met her in person, but through blogging I felt I knew her and the gap she leaves behind.

Her blog was always interesting, full of her character, kayaking the waters around NY, reporting on that great city, posting pictures of snow, flowers and paddles.

Last night I went out into a local park to do a bit of astro photography, capturing the Orion nebula (above). As the skies slowly turned above me I thought about life, and how quickly it passes. 

People come and people go: appreciate them while you can.

So hello my fellow bloggers. 

I'm glad to be part of your community.

Happy New Year 2022

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a great New Year's eve, celebrating we'd made it through another Covid dominated year. Fingers crossed that in 2022 life does begin to return to normal, in particular with travel opening up again.

There wasn't any foreign travel for me last year and only a few trips out on the water. A look through the blog statistics identified the following posts were the most read:

1. The America's Cup is boring brilliant!
2. Paddle Boarding on the Regent's Canal
3. America's Cup and New Zealand
4. Buff Solves Hammersmith Bridge Problem
5. Book Review: The Secret World of Weather by Tristan Gooley

In terms of comments, the following were the top 5:

1. Fulham Cottage Riverstand Update
2. What are your 2021 Sailing Fantasies?
3. Supermoon brings super tides
4. The America's Cup is boring brilliant!
5. Buff Solves Hammersmith Bridge Problem

Sounds like I need to post about ol' Buff and the America's Cup in 2022 sometime. 

A lot of the posts were London related, but that was to be expected given the lockdown we had to go through.

There were a total of 45 blog postings, an average of one every 8 days or so. Not quite once a week which was the target. Oh well, was very busy for a lot of the time.

Blog turns 15

Today this blog is 15, but to be honest with Lockdown V2 just announced I don't much feel like celebrating.

Maybe another time, another year, when Covid is something for the history books.

Stay safe and keep going.

I blame Game of Thrones

I've been neglecting this little blog and I'm going to blame Game of Thrones.

It's a topic where there are strong opinions. While I'm not one of the GoT-ending haters, the final two seasons were definitely rushed. Even though the script wasn't as nuanced as the book based episodes, the overall arc satisfied, completing the major story lines. It ended as all good GoT seasons should: with major characters heading off to create new stories. Bon voyage...

Anyhow, three months ago I was overloaded at work (with quite a bit of travel) and wanted to catch-up with GoT before the ending so spent the evenings watching from series 1 episode 1 rather than blogging. And I didn't finish catching-up until the beginning of this month.

It was rather nice to take a break from blogging.

But now I have a book I want to review, and some travel pics to post, so its back to the keyboard...

Looking back at 2018

It's time to look back at 2018 and those blog posts that got the most views, of which the top ten were:

1. The Tudor Pull: Gloriana, Stela and a photo-bombing heron
2. London Boat Show: Random Photos
3. Boats! Boats! Boats! .... in Geneva, at night
4. Cambridge wins everything!
5. London Boat Show: Golden Globe Race Anniversary & Susie Goodall Racing
6. Frozen Boats! Frozen Boats! Frozen Boats! .... in Geneva
7. This blog is a TEENAGER
8. Reflections on the Thames
9. Thames River Routes: RB1
10. The last days of the old Woolwich Ferries

Not sure how random photos from the London Boat Show got in the top ten, must have been one was picked up by Google photo search.  However I can see where the hits on Susie Goodall racing come from given the recent drama she's been through.

The largest category was about the Thames in London (5 of the top 10) so maybe that's something to post about in 2019. None were about the Svalbard trip, the highest of which was "Longyearbyen, Svalbard" in 13th place.

The simplest to write was the "Cambridge wins everything!" which had no text and the image was a light blue rectangle (go figure that one).

As noted in the "This blog is a TEENAGER" post, a lot of the top scoring posts seem to be photo related, but that's ok, I like taking photos.

What would my favourites be?

I suppose I'd highlight not individual posts but the series, as they've been the fun ones to do and write about - in particular:

• Walking the canals of London
• Exploring the scheduled river services of London
• Visiting Norway and circumnavigating Spitsbergen

Often these projects have opportunities for good photos and also tell a bigger story than can be fit in a single post.

I wonder what 2019 will bring.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

This blog is a TEENAGER

This blog has now entered its teenage years, being 13 years old.

In a TV comedy series by the BBC, teenagers were portrayed as slouching around yelling "that's so unfair" and "you don't understand" before rushing off to slam their bedroom doors. That seems rather harsh, as the teenagers I know are remarkably well informed and adjusted, a lot more than this little blog.

Looking back, the top ten posts by number of hits were:

1. Empty sky, blue sky
2. The northern lights over Greenland
3. Fireworks night
4. The northern lights from deck
5. Three icebergs
6. Writing like...
7. Two years of Land Rover BAR
8. Preparing for the Queen's Jubilee Regatta
9. How to Watch a Tower Bridge Lift
10. Fantastic Rio

Not sure if reading too much into this, but several of these are what I'd call photo posts, i.e. something that could work as well - if not better - on a platform like Instagram. Then again, Instagram wouldn't work for the longer text like posts such as book and exhibition reviews, such as the recent ones about Captain Cook.

But I am quite pleased with these photos, all from the third Greenland trip:

I have a note somewhere that I should write a post about "why I blog" but I can't for the life of me remember what that was to be about.

That is SO unfair.

Blogging joining a new boat in the age of GDPR

There's a nervous excitement about joining a new boat. What will the yacht be like? Who will be the other crew? Will we get on? What will my bunk be like? What will my cabin mate(s) be like?

Blogging this is made harder in the age of GDPR when issues like "permissions" and "rights" have to be taken into account, and hence identities protected.

In this case the answer to the questions were all favourable. The yacht was large and comfortable (maybe too so, more on this later), the crew all friendly and everyone got on, the bunk (below) was cosy (and when not feeling well, a refuge) and my cabin mate an instant friend.

You can read all about the yacht Valiente as at time of writing its details were still up on the internet here.

While large, comfortable and with a strong steel hull, I must admit I struggled to connect to this yacht. It was designed to be managed by a retired couple and everything was push-button. With 14 on-board and two watches there were 7 per watch and to be honest at least 5 with nothing to do. We did raise sails by hand but that was for exercise as there was a button right next to the winch we could have pressed.

But having a wheel house was great - could watch the world go by in warmth and the saloon was a great place to read a book or doze.

The cooking facilities were electric hob (a bit like what Delos have just put in) and there was plenty of facilities such as showers (though as always there were some things not working, including the sensor to activate pumps to extract water from the heads).

Anyhow, bags were stowed, we practised putting on the sea survival suits, lines were cast off and we headed out to circumnavigate Spitsbergen...

The return of Tillerman!!

Hi Guys!

So Buff gave me this assignment to write about the return of Tillerman who apparently "used to be into lasers but now is into aeros" or summit...

Ed: What!!! Sassi: I told Buff to write that article himself! He's actually met Tillerman!

... which is a bit weird.

I mean I like an aero an' all:

but then how cool are lasers and how many gigs have been made, like, EPIC because of lasers (see top pic).

So why has Tillerman got this sweet tooth? Buff also said he's into cold things (what was it? eating snow? biting frost?) which is, like, way freezing and not in a cool way:

And then something clicked! Maybe it's the mini-heatwave (looking soooo good, summer outfit, nice bit of tan, glass of Pinot Grigio straight from the fridge) it suddenly hit me - ICE CREAM!!!

Apparently you can make ice cream from aeros!! How yummy is that!!!

Whereas lasers plus ice equal some sort of explosions, I guess, and you can't eat boffin's lego or whatever lasers are made of.

So it all makes sense: Tillerman's no longer going to gigs but having a nice aero ice cream!! Summer living!!

...ooh... just spotted the aero JP got for the photo.... baggsie!! hmmm.... yes, Tillerman, you're right, aeros are absolutely FAB!!!

Welcome back Mr T! We've missed you!!

Byeeee!!

Sassi

Drug Boat Dreams and a Savage Way to Sail

A shout-out for two sets of sailors met at the Delos meetup back in February.

First up there's the Drug Boat Dreams otherwise known as Targ and Teeps. They bought at a government auction the yacht Golem (as in Jewish folklore) which had been trying to smuggle £120m worth of drugs to Europe. It had to be pretty much torn to pieces inside by the National Crime Agency to find all the packages of cocaine, so it went for not that much but has required a lot of work to get it back together. Recently the mast was put back in and rigged.

You can follow their adventures on Instagram here: note the emphasis on cobalt blue, which fortunately exactly matched the colour of my macarons:

Then there's a Savage way to Sail, a solo circumnavigation being planned by an ex army sailor to raise money for charity. There's a web site here which describes the route and yacht and also a MyDonate page here for those wanting to make a donation. The yacht chosen is Coralle a Camper & Nicholson 40AC.

One of the charities is Turn to Starboard which offers sailing as a means of re-engaing and re-habilitating ex-servicesmen from the UK's military.

Good luck to both Golem and Coralle and the crews of both!

Top 10 Posts of 2017

Happy New Year all! Time to look forward at 2018 and back at 2017.

2017 was a difficult year as had to cancel two big sailing trips and so there was a distinct lack of boating. But what were the top ten posts of 2017?

By view count it was:

1. London Boat Show pics for Tillerman
2. Paddle boat Italie on Lake Geneva (above)
3. Scorchio!
4. So sad
5. Boating weather
6. Boats! Boats! Boats! ... on the Thames at Putney
7. Sleaford Mods going down like B.H.S on the Thames
8. Book review: "A Race Too Far" by Chris Eakin
9. London Boat Show 2017: Recreation of Bounty Voyage
10. Boris Staysail's vinning sailing "alternative truths"

By number of comments it was:

1. (Untitled post)
2. Boats! Boats! Boats! .... at Richmond
3. Five Gigs for Glastonbury Weekend
4. Niagara Falls trip 3/3 - Chicago!
5. Quiz: How many ferries across the Thames are there in London?
6. London Boat Show pics for Tillerman
7. Boating weather
8. Sleaford Mods going down like B.H.S on the Thames
9. Book review: "A Race Too Far" by Chris Eakin
10. Before "All is lost"

My favourites (in no particular order) were:

1. Totally Thames Installation: Future Dust
2. The Ferries of London: the secret Greenwich Ferry
3. The London Stones: Yantlet Creek
4. The Ferries of London: Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry
5. Visiting Bazalgette's magnificent sewers
6. Paddle boat Italie on Lake Geneva
7. Two lessons from my first yacht sail
8. Before "All is lost"

Yes, struggled to get the full 10 favourites.

It was noticeable how view counts decreased in Q4 - did anyone else notice that? Maybe should have posted more London Boat Show pics for Tillerman.

I wonder what 2018 will bring...

The big smoke on Halloween-een

Ok, not actually taken on Halloween but rather yesterday - but anyway a nice sunset.

Today is, of course, also blog anniversary day, but the number of years involved is too big a number to mention in polite society.

Photography update: A6500 with dead cat and Sony's A9 game changer

Time for another of the occasionally blog posts on photography and after recent mention of a dead cat I thought I show you what mine looks like.

Above is my Sony A6500 (upgraded from the A6300 & A6000) with external microphone attached and its wind muffler aka a dead cat when sailing on the the tall ship Zephyr a couple of weekends ago.

It seemed as good as excuse as any to mention the launch of Sony's A9, very much the big brother of the A6500. For those that don't haunt the photography blogs and vlogs, this has led to phrases like game changer being used a lot, but with good reason.

Up to the A9 there were many asking of mirrorless cameras (like both the A6500 and A9) why not get a DSLR with its mirror and mechanical shutter. After the A9 the question it seems fair to reverse the question: why would you want to have a mirror?

The A9 can take full frame images faster than a DSLR thanks to on-chip memory that can pipe data off the sensor using a fully electronic shutter: no noise, shake or rolling shutter. And the view finder updates with no blanks, unlike DSLR that goes dark as the mirror flips up and down.

With a mirrorless camera you can do a whole host of additional features from video (*), silent shooting, focus peaking, zebraing, continuous EVF, touch to focus etc.... You get to see the image as it will be taken before you take the photo, complete with histogram, so have to chimp less.

And cameras can be smaller and lighter: the A6500 above fits in the palm of my hand but is a complete 4K video setup with in-body stabilisation (**), monster burst rate, low noise night time shooting...

Of course requirements differ and there are a couple of things that Sony need to work on for the A6500ii or whatever they call it:

• Screen that flips round
• Extra control dial(s)
• 16-50 F2.8 APSC zoom
• A long APSC zoom lens

There is no such thing as a perfect camera, but Sony are doing some really interesting things at the moment: disruptive and innovative.



(*) ok, you can do video with a DSLR, but you have to lock the mirror up. So it effectively is a mirrorless camera with a bit of weight hanging around.

(**) ok, it might not of looked it from the video posted earlier, but that's my fault.

Tillerman has gone quiet, but apparently the hits on his blog have gone up.

The lesson is clear - less is more.

So how many hits can a blank post receive?

There was clearly only one way to find out...

Switching to YouTube

Hi Guys!!

OMG! So FINALLY JP is no longer going to be total lame-ville and moving from Blogger to YouTube!

He's SAYS its because of the quality and story telling of SV Delos, but who's he kidding???!!

It was of course yours truly and my vlogging chums who taught him everything he needs to know. You know, me and Millipede are like SO CLOSE!! I mean, that night of the launch party for the Tiny Girls new single!!! We raved until dawn!! Then AGAIN with the lads from Kurupt FM!!

So we put together a series of videos to tell losers like JP (and this Liam fella) how to do it.

AND YOU CAN TOO!!!

Gotta go - streaming live in five!!!

Luv ya!

Sassi

London Boat Show 2017: the age of the vlogger

Its times like this that I feel too old to try out vlogging.

I was watching the end of the fashion show at the London Boat Show (waiting for Dee Caffari and Sam Davies) when up popped young Alissa (above, centre).

She is a vlogger with her own YouTube channel TRAVEL around LONDON with ALISSA and was visiting the boat show with press pass and all.

You can watch her report here:

I think I'll go and count my grey hairs now...

The SPECTRE of a blog anniversary

"Ah" says JP, stroking his white cat, "Jolly bloggers, I've been expecting you".

For another year has flown by and it time for yet another blog anniversary, with a whole decade of posting that have come and gone since the first went live.

But rather than sailing I've been to the movies and you can guess what I saw. Good fun it was too, and I  discovered that a race up the Thames is even better at night than daytime - golly the old smoke was looking good.

And you can get your hands on a bit of genuine Bond sailing legend, as the Spirit 54 Soufrière that stared in Casino Royal (above) is for sale!

Alas with the offers asked to be "excess of £600,000" that's a bit out of my price range.

But who knows? 10 years ago I had no idea one day I'd sail double handed to the Arctic Circle or race in the 100th anniversary of the Square Metre Rule.

So here's hoping to "Sail Another Day"...

Ming Ming II Talk at the Cruising Association

On Wednesday I managed to briefly escape work and headed east to the Cruising Association's HQ in London's Limehouse Basin for a talk by Roger Taylor about single handed high latitude sailing.

I've been wondering how to write up what he said given I'm still struggling work wise, but then the answer became clear.

In the first half of his talk he covered the voyages of the original Mingming - which he wrote up in two good books which I've already blogged about (for example, here)

In the second half of his talk (after an excellent dinner was served) he played the video of his voyages in Mingming 2 up to Bear Island and back via Jan Mayen - which you can watch for yourself (click above for sample).

To be honest I only re-watched for a few minutes but then got distracted by the latest update from S/v Delos:


Top tip for all sailing vloggers - this is the level of quality to aim for, with excellent shooting and editing.

I might even say Sweet!

Blogging family heads into the NW passage

My eye keeps getting drawn north.

First I read Arctic Labyrinth all about the discovery of the NW passage, then I open up Yachting Monthly to read (again) about Sumara of Weymouth's trip to Jan Mayen, then I start my next book which is Bob Shepton's Addicted to Adventure which will end up with him - you guessed it - making the NW passage.

The eagle eyed will also spot that the blog roll delete after one year no-posts rule is on hold as the next to delete is "Northwest passage on a shoestring" which was a rather cool trip.

So I was very intrigued when read over on Windtraveler that blogging friends of theirs were planning on taking their family through the NW passage and looking for crew.

Oh my gosh.

Alas having been off sick there's a lot of work to catch up on and its really not a good time to head into the wildest parts of the world for months on end.

Bother.

Anyhow I pinged off an email to wish Salty Kisses good luck plus listing my experience (in putting together Lego kits that is) and got a nice reply.

If you're interested and have the time drop them a line though I think they might have some candidates already.

Buff's Boating Blog Drinking-Game Game

G'day all! Buff Staysail here! Buff by name and Buff by nature!

Buff's been totally getting into the voyages of the S\V Delos! This is my sort of cruising! Warm, clear blue water, drinks to hand, home-brewed hooch and girls in bikinis!

Ol' Buff wanted to join in and found a way to do that - the Delos drinking game! It goes like this:

1. Line up a row of shots in front of you
2. Play the video (e.g. the one above)
3. Everytime someone says "sweet" you down a shot

Sweet!

But it got me thinking: surely you could do the same for other blogs? So I came up with the Boating Blog Drinking-Game Game.

Basically try to find the word that one blogger is more likely to use than another and then that's the drinking game cue. But what word to use?

This is where ol' Buff needs some help - suggestions please! Should it be "spam" for Bonnie? Should it be "rowlocks" for Chris? Should it be "hike" for Tillerman?

And what about JP?

So over to you and this is Buff Staysail, over and - hic - sweet - out!

Now we are eight

Golly doesn't time fly, it's Halloween again and that means this blog is yet another year older.

I took the opportunity to update my blog list using some of the suggestions Tillerman gave, a task that reminded me of those bloggers we haven't heard from recently.

Where are you O'Docker, the Knitting Sailor, Messing about Adam or the rower that now bikes a lot?

Time and tide wait for no one as they say, and the shadows are getting ever longer on 2014. Who knows what is in store for us in the last few months of this year, let alone 2015?

Hope you have an enjoyably spooky evening....