Recent content by strakeryrius

I was at Studland today for a couple of hours - only one other boat there although a few others did turn up they didn't even stay long enough to pick up a mooring buoy. With the wave action it was a little too uncomfortable to stay for lunch, although it was beautifully sunny and warm out of the...

I wasn't sure that I was going to go, and ended up paying the full ticket price last Friday. I was made very welcome by MDL - a couple of beers and wine, as well as peanuts and crisps. I was well aware of the rip-off food prices at the show generally from previous years, and took sandwiches and...

The next Bond movie has a lot lower budget than previous films!

I'm also hoping that the season isn't over yet - I plan to get out quite a lot more and hopefully through the winter if the weather is agreeable. Highlight of the year so far - Poole to Cherbourg and the CI at Easter. We had a crossing over there solo in a flat calm with brilliant sunshine, and...

FlowerPower is innocent! I'm FlowerPower!

I have used the Ortac a couple of times in both directions; not a place you would want to be if the weather is even a little bit heavy, and getting your timing right for the tides is an absolute imperative, or the overfalls are very hairy indeed. Even at an hour or so either side of slack there...

Beaches - well there are miles and miles of them - all golden sand. And a couple of miles around the coast is Swanage with more lovely beaches. Studland is usually the favourite as it has mooring buoys and only Swanage has any more, everywhere else you will have to anchor. Plus its less rolly...

This would be right under normal circumstances, but at the airshow peeps were coming up and anchoring far too close to be able to have that much rode out. I arrived early (11:15) both days, and by 1pm had at least three other vessels anchored within 10m of me both days. On the second day a 40ft...

Is Mrs Firefly aka the Invisible Woman - or judging by that last shot "The Hand"? ;)

Yeah that photo pretty much shows my experience - we'd had a lovely day in Sark and I timed our arrival at Beaucette to be just right for the tide, but never stopped to consider for an instant what effect the sunset would have on the visibility. We filled up while we were there - 68p/litre for...

I was there for a couple of days about 10 days ago - saw Felix near the office and dropped by to say hello a couple of times to find that you were "from home" both times. We had supper in the restaurant one of the nights and the food quality was good, but it arrived in dribs and drabs and I had...

Nice shots Lisilou. Don't see me - I was further to the East in line with the orange marker on the cliffs - but Bongo in shot #2 is a mate on a brand new SC47 out of Cobb's Quay.

You would have been Ok if it had been 26m of all chain, but the length of warp involved is just not heavy enough. I was there Sat and Sunday in 14m with just 25m of all chain out and didn't move an inch either day. Don't worry though, you weren't alone with anchor problems. We were there early...

I'm going out for at least Saturday, and given the number of guests who want to come, maybe Sunday too. Hope the weather is better this year. Light winds forecast for most of the week, so it shouldn't be too choppy either.

I didn't say that Drake was RN - just that our navy in his day was an effective bulwark against invasion. As to there being no threat of invasion prior to the Revolutionary Wars, then what was the Spanish Armada all about - a summer cruise? I agree that our "blue-water" navy only really came...