Macmillan Cancer Support Boat

Not sure why a boat is going up and down the Thames with "We are Macmillan Cancer Support" on the side, but happy to give them a plug as they are a great organisation who help the sufferers, their friends, and their family when most in need.

More on their main site here.

The Fear of a Lightening Strike At Sea

How scared are you of lightening at sea?

On the Greek sail trip we had a spot of bother with a storm as we approached Orei. To the south west were dark clouds lit occaisionally by brief flashes of wriggling white lines.

It didn't go down well with some of the crew: "Let go of the bimini - its support has got metal in it!" I was told.

I've been unhappy at the sight of lightening mid channel, where it is clear that our mast is the only thing that is both a) metal and b) above sea level. But in the middle of the Greek isles there are loads of mountains and buildings, some with lightening conductors that must be really tempting for those electrons high in the clouds.

And then take as an example what happened to Liza Copeland and co on "Still Cruising" when they were struck by lightening off South Africa. No one suffered in the blast though ok almost everything electrical was fried.

So relax, it will be ok.....but... OMG!!! I had this terrible thought...

What about my iPhone??? It will become an expensive slice of toast!!

After a moment of worry it was suggested that the solution was a Faraday Cage, an enclosure made of conducting material which ensures that the electric field within it is constant - see the Wikipedia article here.

But how many yachts go to sea with a Faraday Cage? Ah-ha, another thought - what about the oven?

So it was that in the midst of the thunder storm my precious iPhone was stored for safety in the yacht's tiny oven.

In the end we didn't get struck by lightening, and to this day I have been wondering..... would it have worked?

Aegean Mini Pilot: Pigadhi

Its the final day of the sailing blogs review group writing challenge, and its also the last of these mini pilots from the Greek Aegean. For those wanting more, you could check out the cruising wiki site here though it seems a bit out of date and the Orei page doesn't mention the magnificent marble bull.

The final port of call was the fishing village of Pigadhi on the mainland and an easy sail to the Sunsail base. Maybe because of that it seems all geared up for the many flotillas that find it a conveniently easy short day sail (as in this write up in the Daily Telegraph travel section).

As you turn into the bay in which it nestles as in the Navionics chart picture above, you can check where you are going the right way with two convenient landmarks.

Firstly there is a rectangular tower on the top of the hill to the left: this commemorates the local legend that Pigadhi is where Achilles left to fight the Trojan war. Secondly on the headland to the right there is what is known as Toad Rock:

Hmmm.. could be a bunny rabbit as well.

Pigadhi itself is a small fishing village, basic rather than pretty. Maybe because of the regular visits from the flots it didn't feel like it had to make much of an effort.

Yes a local did rush out to help with our lines, but there was a clear quid pro quo in that he just happened to be the owner of a taverna, and a taverna with a big Sunsail! flag, and with menu order forms conveniently labelled with boat name (useful for the larger flots).

And the food wasn't that great, either in range on the menu or quality when it turned up.

It was a winding down, tomorrow's the last day sort of place.

Summary

Harbour fees: none

Rating: *****

Best bit: er..... hmmm.... let me get back to you on that one.

Aegean Mini Pilot: Skopelos Town

Skopelos is a movie star sort of town. Actually it really is, being yet another of the places that was used as sets by the (in)famous Mamma Mia!

It really is very pretty, where the paint salesman asks whether you want your house painted in white or, er, white. And the pretty, white, houses are stacked up a hill, with lots of little alley ways between them.

And to make it even prettier there are churches. Lots of churches. In fact there are meant to be 123 churches and chapels in Skopelos!

Anyhow some pilot stuff. The port is very well protected against wind from every direction, with hills on most side, down which Katabatic winds come pouring down. But only for a short time, as always in Greece it quietened down in the evening.

There is a long quay side which gives plenty of room for a full flotilla plus the odd boat like us to get in with plenty of space for others. There are also protected anchorages where a big Oyster 65 decided to keep well away from us plebs: they even had staff in uniform with a tender to woosh the guests in for dinner.

And thats a very good idea - the dinner bit I mean - as there are lots of lovely bars and tavernas in this really amazingly pretty town:

The only down side for me was at this point my sea urchin embedded foot was beginning to say Oi! You! Stop walking, swallow a bucket of paracetemol and go to bed!

Fab town though.

Summary

Harbour fees: there were some! For our 423 it was maybe all of 2 Euros

Rating: *****

Best bit: The view from the bar we found (see pic above)

Aegean Mini Pilot: Steni Vala

We weren't sure how far we'd get and at one point almost stopped at Patitiri, but it looked too busy and not that attractive so pushed on to Steni Vala and we were so glad we had.

Steni Vala is a lovely little harbour half way up Alonissos with almost nothing there. In the Navionics chart above all you can see is that there is a submarine cable marked. It's almost as if its their secret hideaway and they want to keep it like that.

To be fair there really isn't that much there: a concrete quay side with mooring rings, a couple of tavernas, a few bars, a couple of shops, and thats it.

Oh, not quite: there are a couple of paths out, like the one below that takes you over a headland to a beach with crystal clear water.

And the tavernas and bars were just right: great food, friendly staff, so we had lovely fried battered cougettes, more sea food and chips and then headed off for a night cap beer under the stars at the bar at the far end.

I'm guessing it might get a bit packed if more than a few boats head in there. There were only a few while we were there, including a Sunsail cat with four young Italian couples who wore swimwear all the time - so "ciao" to them.

Three words of warning:

1) There are rocks close to the quay that mean the depth guage can be misleading. We parked so that the rudder was just over this lump that we bounced on once or twice and had to move out a few metres. But the water is very clear so you can look under the hull to see them

2) The water maybe lovely clear but there are sea urchins there too!

3) The bars mix a mean gin and tonic.

Steni Vala was our favourite stop anywhere, even with sea urchins.

Just look at this water....

Summary

Harbour fees: none

Rating: *****

Best bit: Steni Vala was the best bit

Aegean Mini Pilot: Koukounaries

After Orei we next stopped at Koukounaries on the south coast of Skiathos. It's main claim to fame is is apparently "one of the top ten beaches of the world", so you'd have thought it would be a good place to stop.

Alas we were not that impressed. Firstly there was the problem of where to park - check out the chart extract above from Navionics. The harbour was tiny and of the limited space about half was taken up by fishing boats, while the rest during the day is taken up by day tripper tourist boats.

As they leave in the evening there was a rather inelegant rush to get one of the two or three berths along side the quay. We decided not to join the scrum and anchored off the south side with shore line wrapped round a lamp post.

It was rather exposed especially to the south and alas that was not only where the wind was coming from but also a mysterious tsumani like short burst of swell (probably from one of those fast ferry cats passing by way out to sea).

It felt very dramatic as the yacht bounced up and down and waves crashed onto the rocks but a quick check of the depth guage showed we went from an even 2m under the keel to ranging between 1.8 and 2.2 m.

Not knowing when it might hit us again we decided laying the kedge as well would be a good idea:

After all the day trippers had gone home the bay quietened down considerably and it was time to check out the famous beach.

While we had our faithful Nemo to hand, but of course to one who will happily jump into piranha or sea urchin infested waters there was clearly a better way to get to shore.

The water was lovely and clear and it was noticable how much warmer it got the closer in we swam.

But when we got there it was just another beach, with a slightly forlorn, deserted feel to it: empty sunbeds, closed stalls and sun shades angled at random.

So it was back to the boat for dinner on board while the sun set and the stars came out.

Summary

Harbour fees: none

Rating: *****

Best bit: the peace and quiet in the evening after the day trippers have gone

Aegean Mini Pilot: Orei

First of a series of reviews of the places visited in the Sunsail bareboat sailing trip, which I'm calling a mini Pilot as aspire to a Pilot Book level of detail but alas only have a time to type a few paragraphs. But hopefully they will be of use to someone nethertheless.

Anyhow starting off with the chart above, thanks to the Navionics iPhone app. As you can see there is good shelter when winds come from most directions apart from the south-west, and when we were trying to get in there was a thunder and lightening (very very frightening) coming from the - you guessed it - the south west. Our first two goes at mooring up were the stuff that is more fun to watch than execute.

However as happens most of time the clouds blew by leaving a nice sunset and we were soon walking along the quayside.

Orei isn't a particularly pretty town: more workmanlike than picture postcard. However there is a nice pedestrianised stretch of road by the water's edge with many tavernas and comfy chairs that tempt the passer by to linger over more than a few glasses.

We were promised a good (as in cheap) supermarket but think the "super" is over doing it as it wasn't much different from the stores at the other places we went to. It was however definitely cheaper than the shop by the Sunsail flotilla base, and they threw in a six-pack of water bottles free.

The supermarket can be found behind the church (the northerly one on the chart above) which is pleasant rather than amazing and there was a service just finishing as we walked by so heard some nice Greek Orthdox plain chant.

The best reason to go to Orei is the Hellenistic statue of a bull (below) which is on display in a glass and wood display just next to the church.

It is a full size marble bull full of lovely details that dates from the 4th Century BC, and was dredged up from the harbour.

Summary

Harbour fees: none

Rating: *****

Best bit: the marble bull so if that doesn't float your boat go elsewhere.

Review: Sailing with Navionics iPhone Charts

Before heading off for my Sunsail bareboat charter holiday reviewed earlier, took the time to download some Navionics charts. It was an even better deal than before, costing around US $10 for the whole of the Meditarranian.

So what was it like to use it actually on a boat?

We had effectively three different navigation tools:
1) Chart, Pilot Book and eyes
2) On deck chart plotter
3) iPhone Navionics charts Version 2.1

The chart plotter and Navionics both showed similar chart data as can be seen by the screen above. We could have put in way points to Navionics but to be honest as have mentioned before have found it a clumbersome process, so didn't bother to test that functionality.

I did switch on the "Track" function and it does work as can be seen in the screen shot above. The track is shown as a red line and then the arrow shows the direction of travel based presumably on the last few fixes.

However that only works if you keep the iPhone switched on and if the power saving mode switches it off you end up with big jumps, as in the figure below:

The 255V socket on the boat didn't seem to function unless we were connected to shore power so wasn't able to charge onboard (this wasn't a problem as could just plug it in to recharge at any restaurants we stopped at).

The chart plotter had a very useful predicted line based upon current COG (course over ground) which Navionics does not, and in general it is very helpful. However there was some debate over accuracy at one port where our COG on the chart plotter intersected the land but simple eye-balling suggested we were just fine.

I'm not sure whether that was due to there being a lot of lee-way or due to inaccuracies in the GPS (which we should never forget can have significant errors in its data).

But there was a bigger question here - why use GPS, whether chart plotter or Navionics, at all?

Because in practice we were doing day sails island hopping and we could almost always just look up and see some form of easily identifiable landmark. The pilot books in particular had a wealth of information including historical points of interest and even the names of the taverna owners.

And there is a danger of always looking down at the instruments, not least we spend our working days gazing at a screen do we really want to spend our holidays doing the same?

Having said that there was point at which the Navionics iPhone application proved its worth. There was something on the paper charts which might have been a reef or it might have been a smudge due to a retsina spill, but which was it?

Out with the iPhone, couple of drags and zooms, and yup it's a smudge!

Phew - and so we sailed on with confidence.

Angels cross Indian Ocean

Congratulations to the Ocean Angels for successfully rowing across the Indian Ocean!

This morning the all female crew arrived in Mauritius after a 78 day row from Western Australia. The straight line route would have been 3,132 nautical mile but as can be seen from the course above the wind and current pushed them off the rumb line.

I was lucky to meet one of them, Fiona, at the boats and other things show in Earls Court December last year.

As well as an amazing personal achievement they have made their way into the record books being the first all female crew to cross that Ocean and also aim to raise £ 50,000 for the charity Breast Cancer Care.

I think they have totally deserved the cold beers that must have been waiting for them on arrival!

Review: Bareboat Sailing with Sunsail in the Greek Aegean

After the last sailing blog group exercise of thinking up sailor-changing-light-bulb jokes (to which my answers were none, none, and none) - its on to the next which is to write a review. Pretty much any post can be made into a review (e.g. the sunset here tonight gets ***** i.e. 3 stars out a possible 5) however that is not much use to the general reader.

But having just got back from a Sunsail bareboat charter in the Aegean, that might be of interest to those who are thinking of doing the same. So here it goes, looking at flight out, the boat, water and wildlife, islands and towns, the weather, and an overall score.

1. Flight Out *****

The flight was with Thompson and was pretty awful. Firstly there's the lack of leg room which means that anyone over 6 feet are forced to sit bolt upright to avoid grazing their knees on the seat in front. At which point the head rest is pretty irrelevant and so you'll end up dozing with a crick in your neck.

Also there is a proper meal for some but they don't tell you if it's you until it arrives towards the end of the flight - after they've gone around selling sandwiches. So you can take pot luck and hope you are one of the "lucky" ones with a microwaved in-flight reconstructed meat or play it safe and buy some of their sandwiches or do as we do and buy a sandwich and regret it as to full to do more than poke at the unwanted plastic tray afterwards.

You arrive at the tiny airport at Skiathos where there is only room to park 3 aircraft and the island is only just big enough for the runway so take off and landing are interesting (the pic above is of another charter company that took and landed at London Gatwick with 15 minutes of us).


2. The Boat *****

We had a Oceanis 423 which was very comfy with three large double cabins and three heads so that was pretty much en-suite. There was a good bimini, huge fridge and well stocked kitchen (ok, it had the most important thing which was a cafetiere). No choice of sails - just main with 3 reefs and furling headsail. There was a single reasonable sized wheel with throttle nicely placed on pedestal so could easily manoeuvre her forward and backwards. The on deck chart plotter was rather cool though to be honest rather unnecessary given the distances sailed.

There was one big failing, which was that the anchor chain was not the right size for the windlass which was totally rubbish as meant couldn't get the anchor in as the chain kept slipping and had to resort to manually pulling it up. We guessed that someone had lost the anchor and chain and Sunsail had just put one on that was close but that's really not acceptable given how important an anchor is, hence the one star less.

There were some minor things which bugged me but everyone else just shrugged there shoulders:
- If you have GPS and DSC it makes sense to connect them up - after all it is a lot more useful if you hit the DSC button if people know where you are rather than just "there is a boat in trouble somewhere in VHF range". However the Sunsail rep and my two ex flot sailing friends didn't seem that bothered
- The instruments didn't have a lot of the numbers needed while racing like true wind angle & speed let alone VMG. Ok, this is a relaxing cruising holiday but it can be fun to play around with trim...... ok it is fun for an ex-racer!


3. Water and Wildlife *****

Again pretty good: the water was lovely and crystal clear and we were treated to dolphins playing around the bow. If you looked under the water at the harbour you could almost always see lots of fish of a range of sizes.

The one star is taken off as didn't see a huge amount, though maybe if we'd gone further into the national park we'd have seen more. For example we saw a hut where we could learn more about seals - but alas it was closed and we didn't see any.


4. Islands and Towns *****

It was lovely sailing - a number of islands with pretty little Greek villages, all white painted with Greek Orthodox churches scattered around like pebbles and rows of tavernas along the water front with fresh local food. You'd see fishermen out catching the dinner for tomorrow, and go behind the counter with the taverna owner to select your fish and haggle over price.

There were antiquities if you are interested (though not that many) and clubs for those of that nature (well is Skiathos anyhow). And unlike the Ionian it wasn't crowded out - we could always get into which ever harbour we wanted.

Lovely - really can really recommend it as a sailing area.


5. Wind and Weather *****

Mostly ok. The pattern was for no wind first thing in the morning, then gentle, then around 4 - 5 ish in the afternoon it would really blow for an hour or so, sometimes with exciting storms with thunder and lightening (some on our boat used words other than exciting).

After the blow it would settle down and by late evening it would be quiet again. However we learnt that mooring up time was often "interesting" and it can be useful to get in earlier or wait outside till the wind drops (which it will).

We did once put in a reef when it was F5 or something but to be honest if anything felt we could have done with a bit more wind, though again it might depend upon temperament.

The only annoying time was the day we had a nice blow but it was directly on our nose all day long and it was a very long leg so we couldn't afford to tack tack tack hence motored. Boring.


6. Overall *****

There were some niggles - the flight and the anchor / windlass problem springs to mind - but there were minor. The price off season was particularly good, so we paid about half what the Sunsail web site is currently quoting for August. Though of course you with children at school will probably be muttering at this point, so what can I say but sorry.

In general very happy with the package and would be happy to sail with them again.

Bubbler Sunset

Its been pretty hard the last couple of weeks having a series of foot related ailments which meant could only watch from the river bank as others paddle and sail - particularly when the weather has been so good.

However the sight of this boat at sunset has helped lessen the blow.

Over the last week the river has had a noticeable, distinctive and rather strong smell. Now while the mud flats of old Father Thames are well know for their aroma, this has seemed a bit stronger and richer than usual.

And it might be no co-incidence that for the last three days in a row, i.e. including both weekend days, the famous Thames bubbler has been prowling up and down, pumping oxygen into the river around Putney Bridge ever day.

That's a lot of oxygen, lots of cost - the sort that isn't spent unless there is a real need.

So it might have been just as well that my battle scared multiply wounded foot didn't come in touch with river water however tempting were the sight of kayakers paddling off into the sunset.

Swimming Story: Nemo and the Sea Urchin

A bit late in the day to add to the host of swimming posts, but here is a story from the Greek sailing holiday: Nemo and the Sea Urchin.

One day we were leaving a wonderful little bay in which there was not much more than a few tavernas, and which was filled with spectacular clear water, when the inflatable somehow became detached from our yacht.

The girls on our boat had previously worked for one of the big sailing companies running flotillas (or "flots") in the Ionian, and it is fair to say this is not the first time this had happened to them or one of their guests.

Indeed it was such a common thing that the whole "where's the inflatable got to?" had turned into a catch phrase - they were off "finding Nemo".

So soon all inflatables were nick-named "Nemo" and ours was no exception. In this case it wasn't hard to find Nemo, as the bay was very small and the wind had drifted him (hmm.... calling a boat a "him" - interesting) between another yacht and a fishing boat.

It being a hot day, the water tempting, and being known as one to jump into the water at a moments notice (even when piranha infested) I of course was in my swimming trunks and jumping to the back of the boat before you could say "is that engine in neutral?"

It didn't take long to swim over to Nemo, grab his leash and then there's the question of how to get in.

Alas the brilliant idea the brain came up with at this point was to swim to the quay side, just a few metres away, and then jump from that into the boat.

All went er... swimmingly (groan, sorry) ... and was soon rowing the boat in triumph back to the yacht and we were on our way.

Except.... hey guys.. I'm bleeding!

For alas getting to the quay side I had stepped on a sea urchin, and now my foot was looking like a pin cushion.

Over the next few days we tried every possible way to get them out, from soaking in salt water, to ammonia, to tweezers, to pins, to digging with nail cutters, till earlier this week my GP announced there were only a few left and they should eventually dissolve.

The moral of this story is that in places where there are sea urchins and you find yourself moved by the urge to leap into water - and please do, its wonderful - it doesn't matter if you do or do not wear your costume, but please remember those shoes!

ps - if you do alas find black bits of sea urchin spine broken off in your foot there's some great advice here about what to do.

Summer on the River

I've gathered from posts on Frogma and Proper Course that the weather on the east coast US hasn't been that good recently, with more than a spot of rain recently.

Here in jolly old England however things have been fab with a spell of lovely weather all week. Blue sky, warming sun, lovely sunsets, cool breazes on the river....

Of course the grey beauracracy of the system rather puts a downer on it by putting the UK on a "level 3 heatwave alert!" whatever that means.

Everyone else has been enjoying it, and ambling back home on my bike was tempted to go the wrong way just to make the journey longer, and could really see how those Italians soaking up this temperate airs could call out "ciao bella" to the beauties strolling by.

To hopefully cheer up those for whom summer has yet to come (and knowing our weather that will be us too tomorrow) here are some sunset boating pics.

Above is some kayaks for Bonnie, below some rowers for Adam, and at the bottom a Laser and friend for Tillerman.

Good news - blood suckers in the Thames!

When I was young there was one bit of Arthur Ransome's "Secret Water" I didn't get. Nancy Blacket, pirate, terror of the seas and captain of the Amazon is well known in the books for her exclamations in nautical phrases such as "jibbooms and bobstays".

Then in "Secret Water" they changed, due it was suggested, to the eel blood in her. All of a sudden there was "suffering lampreys". Eh? I think was my reaction, what is a lamprey?

The word came up again to describe the death of King Henry I due to him eating an excess of lampreys, though the repository of all of England's history as it should be remembered, the classic "1066 and all that", described it as a "surfeit of palfreys".

However I never really knew what they were which is just as well as they sound horrid. According to this story on the BBC web site the "parasitic creature attaches its circular mouth to larger creatures before sucking out their insides" (see photo above).

And these have just been found in the Thames where I go paddling and sailing!

Not sure I wholly agree with the environmental perspective that this is a good thing as they only like really clean water.

Sailing in Greece - Video of playing dolphins

Click here to see in HD on YouTube.

Sailing in Greece - Ionion vs Aegean

None of us on the boat had sailed the Aegean sea before.

We had all at one time or other sailed in the Ionian sea - myself once about twenty years ago a few few years ago while "the girls" as they were known had both worked as flottila skippers there for a season or two for one of the big sailing holiday firms.

And to be honest none of us would go back as it was just what a sailing holiday in Greece should be. Isolated bays or little harbours with white painted houses, mooring up with plenty of spaces just along side a row of tavernas, good food, local fish from the clear waters.

Ok it was at its best, being warm yet not high season as the schools hadn't broken for the long summer break. But in the Ionian even at this time of year the marinas would have been packed.

For the record the route below was about 160 nautical miles and we stopped at Oreoi, Koukounaries, Steni Vala, Skopelos and Pigadhion.

Sailing in Greece - what and where

This is the boat we were sailing. No, not that one (which is for sale - check the sign), the one on the right (which is for sail - groan, sorry about that).

It was an Oceanis 423 with three double cabins and three heads, and I had an on-suite all to myself which is just plain decadant after previous hot bunking in cot bunks.

And we didn't even do any overnight passages nor needed a watch system. Felt a bit like a holiday!

Ok, it was a holiday.

It was a Sunsail bareboat in the Greek Aegean sea, and we pottered around the islands as in this Google Earth pic:

Mamma Mia Sailing

This picture comes from the film (movie to you non Brits) Mamma Mia! which has become the best selling movie (film to you Brits) in the UK.

It managed that feat despite being loathed by about half the population, for I've yet to meet anyone who is male and liked it. Phrases like "ghastly" and "worst film I've ever seen" are typically what they will say, and I count myself fortunate to not have been dragged to see it.

But there clearly are those that differ, and in particular the female film goer.

I'm not entirely clear about the plot, but understand its some form of Rom-com around the songs of Abba, and was originally a musical. One thing I do know about it is that it was filmed in Greece, and in particular around the islands of Skopelos and Skiathos, which was where we went sailing last week.

A host of posts to come, which will aim to avoid the "Sailed to Skopelosseloss. Moored up. Had dinner. It was fantastic...." bla bla bla.

But there will be the story of Nemo (as in the finding of) and the sea urchin, plus some playing dolphins, thunder and lightening (very very frightening), and selection of pics.

Back from sailing.... where?

Just got back from sailing and no rest as busy this weekend so no time for more than a brief post. Ands its another weekend puzzler, namely to work out where I was sailing.

Clue one is that it was in the Med, and the second clue is above.

This is a very female friendly quiz, as there is a huge gender divide on this topic.

Most blokes will at this point hear a wooshing sound as it goes over their head, and they are the lucky ones as those that do get it will probably be shuddering at the memory.

Alas sailing in the area there was no escape as the music above was pumped out at a moments notice.

Off Yachting

Ta ta for a while.

I'm off to the Med to do a bit of yachting......

Night on the river

My digital SLR can do so many things it often seems a shame to leave it on auto mode and use it as a point and click. But recently skimmed my way through the user guide and configured the program mode, setup for low light situations with an ISO of 1,600.

And this is one of the results.

It's of the police RIB that every now and then sniffs around the moorings late at night, looking for who knows what.

There must be the inspiration for a story there somewhere!

The Fall of Icarus

For the last few months my laptop has been the source of endless grief - one long battle against drivers and settings to get the wireless to work - a battle that was only won (if indeed it is has) by a re-start to factory settings and replacement of the motherboard.

But now it is almost recovered to where it should have been back in January, and to celebrate I've changed my desktop picture from the a Vendee Globe photo to "Landscape with the Fall of Icaras", above. Originally it was thought to be the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but now that is considered doubtful.

What is most interesting about this picture is how Icarus is such a small part of the overall work. He has done something legendary - together with his father he managed to fly, soaring so high towards the sun that his wings melted, as if the gods themselves were displeased by the audacity of humans.

But all you see of him are his feet and legs in the moment of splash! before he disappears under the water for ever. The rest of the world goes on regardless, the ploughman and his horse, the shepard and his flock, and the boats sailing in the bay.

And why this picture? Well it was a clue in a competition to win a bit of modern art, the cover of the latest album from the band called "The Hours". While I didn't win anything it was great fun, and introduced me to their two albums, which have really enjoyed.

One of the best songs is called "Icarus" and the lyrics has an interesting take on the story.

Like Icarus he flew too close to the sun-

I know he fell but for a while there, he must

Have had some fun

I like that: you never know what will happen in life but give it a go, aim high, and try to have some fun on the way.

Running Aground

Oops!

Not a good day for keeping boats off the rocks. Check out this video of a sailor who got into trouble while attempting his ambition of sailing round Britain. A combination of engine failure and fog resulting in him ending up on the Dorset rocks.

Sounds like a good example to add to the collection of Total Loss.

Evidence that even the most pro of professional sailors are not immune can be seen in the picture above of Telefonica Blue on the rocks after starting the latest leg of the Volvo. No engine failure or fog here.

While not a total loss it must be "like, totally embarrasing!"

The war on fish

I'm currently watching the final episode of the BBC nature program "South Pacific" which is pretty terrifying.

Purse Seine nets are the latest in fishing technology and they can hoover up whole shoals of tuna, a hundred and fifty tonnes in one go, including the young before they have a chance to breed (and in the filming of South Pacific also a film crew).

If this goes on, there will be nothing left. Nothing.

A global tuna collapse, the Newfoundland cod bank disaster worldwide, followed by other species.

At the same time a film has been released called "The End of the Line" which has already had a major impact here in the UK.

The sandwich retailer Pret A Manger has already banned the most at risk blue fin tuna from its shops.

Not all tuna fishing is bad. But unless it is clearly labeled line caught from substainable sources I'd say don't reward this stupid, short sighted, destructive, act of vandalism.

3 Light Bulbs

I have spotted a common theme in my three attempts at light bulb jokes. As they are in three different comments on two blogs to help spot the common theme I've reproduced them below.

1. How many iPhone owning sailors does it take to change a light bulb? None! You just download the torchlight app dude!!!

2. How many luxury super yacht sailors does it take to change a light bulb? None! There are staff to do that for you.

3. How many America's Cup sailors does it take to change a light bulb? None! Everything is done by lawyers now.

See what I mean?

Actually it could be a coded eco message - those old incandescent bulbs are very inefficient compared to other technologies.

Growltiger’s Last Stand

Of all the arts its poetry that interests me the least. The BBC's Radio 3 is currently having a poetry season which to be honest has left me cold.

However there are exceptions to this rule, of which T.S. Eliot's cat poems are good examples. And as Carol Anne pointed out, one of them even has Thames and nautical themes, namely Growltiger's last stand.

So here it is:

Growltiger was a Bravo Cat, who travelled on a barge:
In fact he was the roughest cat that ever roamed at large.
From Gravesend up to Oxford he pursued his evil aims,
Rejoicing in his title of ‘The Terror of the Thames’.

His manner and appearance did not calculate to please;
His coat was torn and seedy, he was baggy at the knees;
One ear was somewhat missing, no need to tell you why,
And he scowled upon a hostile world from one forbidding eye.

The cottagers of Rotherhithe knew something of his fame;
At Hammersmith and Putney people shuddered at his name.
They would fortify the hen-house, lock up the silly goose,
When the rumour ran along the shore: Growltiger’s on the loose!

Woe to the weak canary, that fluttered from its cage;
Woe to the pampered Pekinese, that faced Growltiger’s rage;
Woe to the bristly Bandicoot, that lurks on foreign ships,
And woe to any Cat with whom Growltiger came to grips!

But most to Cats of foreign race his hatred had been vowed;
To Cats of foreign name and race no quarter was allowed.
The Persian and the Siamese regarded him with fear —
Because it was a Siamese that had mauled his missing ear.

Now on a peaceful summer night, all nature seemed at play,
The tender moon was shining bright, the barge at Molesey lay.
All in the balmy moonlight it lay rocking on the tide —
And Growltiger was disposed to show his sentimental side.

His bucko mate, Grumbuskin, long since had disappeared,
For to the Bell at Hampton he had gone to wet his beard;
And his bosun, Tumblebrutus, he too had stol’n away —
In the yard behind the Lion he was prowling for his prey.

In the forepeak of the vessel Growltiger stood alone,
Concentrating his attention on the Lady Griddlebone.
And his raffish crew was sleeping in their barrels and their bunks —
As the Siamese came creeping in their sampans and their junks.

Growltiger had no eye or ear for aught but Griddlebone,
And the Lady seemed enraptured by his manly baritone,
Disposed to relaxation, and awaiting no surprise —
But the moonlight shone reflected from a hundred bright blue eyes.

And closer still and closer the sampans circled round,
And yet from all the enemy there was not heard a sound.
The lovers sang their last duet, in danger of their lives —
For the foe was armed with toasting forks and cruel carving knives.

Then Gilbert gave the signal to his fierce Mongolian horde;
With a frightful burst of fireworks the Chinks they swarmed aboard.
Abandoning their sampans, their pullaways and junks,
They battened down the hatches on the crew within their bunks.

Then Griddlebone she gave a screech, for she was badly skeered;
I am sorry to admit it, but she quickly disappeared.
She probably escaped with ease, I’m sure she was not drowned —
But a serried ring of flashing steel Growltiger did surround.

The ruthless foe pressed forward, in stubborn rank on rank;
Growltiger to his vast surprise was forced to walk the plank.
He who a hundred victims had driven to that drop,
At the end of all his crimes was forced to go ker-flip, ker-flop.

Oh there was joy in Wapping when the news flew through the land;
At Maidenhead and Henley there was dancing on the strand.
Rats were roasted whole in Brentford, and at Victoria Dock,
And a day of celebration was commanded in Bangkok.

Book Review: Total Loss

This is not a fun read.

It could also be called rather predictable as at the end of every chapter a boat is lost. It might be rocks, sand, storms, fire, explosion, collisions, leaks, breakage, or another of the many ways in which a sailing vessel can change from a thing of beauty and motion to a wreck, but without fail it is lost.

There are 40 stories - and in the latest revised edition 45 - and they are all first hand experiences from the skipper or crew that got into trouble. Fortunately the editor selected those stories where no lives were actually lost.

Having said all that I think its probably essential reading as a reminder of what can happen.

It is hard to fully understand the power that the wind and sea can unleash without experiencing it first hand. There are some good videos over at The Horse's Mouth you can see by clicking here.

One story was of a boat that sailed into the heart of a hurricane, and despite all the crews efforts and a brave boat there came a time when the hopes and prayers that it didn't get any worse were not answered. In this case it was estimated that the wind speed was 175 knots when they abandoned ship.

One hundred and seventy five knots.

It is not surprising that a common theme amongst the stories is of winds and seas increasing beyond the tolerances of crew, boat, or circumstances. A particularly deadly combination is bad weather, night time, and tired sailors, whose brain and muscles are struggling.

There are also stories of boats holed beneath the water line after collisions with underwater objects, sleepers below deck woken by a crash and then water flowing in faster than the pumps can cope.

It brings home how the flares and grab bags are not there just to fill the ticks on the charter companies list but for a reason.

And how we can all make mistakes, take a risk that doesn't come off, or just be plain unlucky.

So let's be careful out there.

More Navionics Screenshots

Recently I was reading about sailing on England's east coast and it was fun to be able to pull up the charts of Felixstowe just like that using my Navionics charts on my iPhone.

I've done a bit more exploring of the V2 update but to be honest kept on wondering if it was me or the software that wasn't quite right. In the end checked out their help pages (which you can find here) and decided it wasn't me.

What I was trying to do was set the waypoints at specific lat/long points, or move existing ones set to new locations, and was not successful.

But there are definite plus points for this release, like the new tide graphics that show direction and strength:

You can move the little sniper sights circle to the time you're interested in which is fun. There is also a water height screen:

If you want the raw numbers just like in the almanac well here they are:

There's also a screen with the way points on them and heading / distance for each segment, which would be a good place to put those waypoint editing screens (hint hint):

I had terrible trouble with the way point edit function and basically decided the only option was to do it right first time, which given the imprecise touch screen is pretty unlikely.

While the tide prediction seems to have lost the implausible discontinuities of previous versions the feature to highlight areas with insufficient depth seems to have its own bugs. In the pic below there are all sorts of dangerous banks outside Felixstowe, and Navionics seem to truncate them.

Interestingly if you zoom in the fill is correct.

I did try and show off the "Track" option which shows a wiggly line of where you've been (ok, if you steer brilliantly maybe you'd get a straight line). I did this on the train to work (check out the times of the screenshots) and it was a dismal failure.

There are two problems:
1) Was very rarely able to get GPS lock in the train carriage
2) The iPhone kept switching into standby to save power

So what? you are probably thinking. Well if you use the GPS a lot and stop the going into standby then the iPhone battery will drain like there is no tomorrow. So the only way of really doing the track is to be plugged into a power, such as by the nav station, which of course would be useful place to see it.

But of course the nav station is below deck, and so there would be some attenuation of the GPS signal, maybe not as much as in a train but certainly some.

Hence what you want is outdoor electrics, which you don't often do on a sail boat but might on some form of gin palace.

Together with the inability of the depth colour feature to take account of tides makes me wonder if the target market is motor yachts in the Med.

Co-incidently Navionics is an Italian company!



Note: newer Navionics iPhone post here and previous post here