A long weekend on the boat.

yes, thoroughly enjoyable as said Henry. Spoke to my father over the weekend and confirmed he's also read the thread which brought back some great memories for him e.g. snapping his rod in half off number 8 pier off a head I can't recall the name of. Glad to have you and the ladies back safely in the Solent, not quite the molten lava I've depicted when going beyond local waters but you get the drift. See you all soon hopefully. thanks again for taken time to document your adventure :cool:
 
I couldn't photograph the fish I caught they were so big. We're talking 3 pound mackerel and 10 pound bass at least ;)

I seems funny coming back to the Solent after a while away.

Henry :)
 
I'd like to add my humble thanks for this epic cruise report. IMHO, you've done very well on conveying the moment and telling a story with the pics. Very difficult but also very exciting.

One item missing from the stats was the # of pics taken during the trip :)

A question, if I may: you mentioned somewhere about activities involving the holding tank. Are there generally pump-out facilities available or is it normally just a matter of popping out to the open sea?
 
Great thread, Henry. Fowey is one of my favourite places. Is the somewhat elderly steam launch still doing trips round the bay there?
 
When you can get a trip like this - who needs the Med? Ok, the weather there might be more reliable, but .......

A wonderful tale Henry, much enjoyed reading and popping in to see if the next days episode had been posted - the time and trouble to post has been much appreciated by so many, not least myself.

Now, you mentioned retirement......! :)
 
scubaman said:
I'd like to add my humble thanks for this epic cruise report. IMHO, you've done very well on conveying the moment and telling a story with the pics. Very difficult but also very exciting.

One item missing from the stats was the # of pics taken during the trip :)

A question, if I may: you mentioned somewhere about activities involving the holding tank. Are there generally pump-out facilities available or is it normally just a matter of popping out to the open sea?
Click to expand...

The answer is a lot ! Some of the pictures were in difficult lighting conditions so I just took a load of bracketed shots one after the other altering shutter speed or aperture settings to get an image which would work when I got back to the boat. Also when you're bouncing around on a boat you have to take a couple of shots in case you get motion blur.

In Dartmouth I must have taken 20 pictures trying to get the exposure right on a set of stairs and in the end I never used the image. It wasn't a bad image but I had others which I preferred. I was going through a bit of a stairs thing that day. If you like steps and stairs then the West country is your Mecca. Lots of hills and steep slopes means lots of steps :)

I'm not a big fan of post production editing. In the very last set of shots of the boat I quickly took out mooring buoys and and lines but that's it. Other than that it's just a case of straightening the horizon and cropping it clean afterwards. Oh, I took a young lady out of one of the images, she was bending over and it looked a bit wrong !

Some of the images I took were instantly deleted on the camera. The fairground in Torquay was a case in point. Fast moving rides mean you have to line up a shot and then just keep snapping as the ride goes by deleting "missed" images on the camera to save SD card space. I'll try and see how many actual shots I took.

There are holding tank pump out stations but in the main I just empty it as we go along off shore. Everything is macerated and there is a lot of sea water out there. It didn't happen on this trip but if we ever looked likely to push the holding tank capacity we could have 1 toilet going out to sea for number 1's, and the other toilet going into the holding tank for number 2's

I'll find out how many pictures I took in total.

Incidentally, loved your sunset shots on the other thread. Gorgeous.

Henry :)

I've just checked, it was 3018 images in total. To be fair quite a lot of those got deleted on the camera whilst out in the field. So it's fair to say there are a few other shots where this lot came from. This thread has, I think taken 365 images.
 
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benjenbav said:
Great thread, Henry. Fowey is one of my favourite places. Is the somewhat elderly steam launch still doing trips round the bay there?
Click to expand...


Indeed it is. The good ship Gallant.

30steamshipfowey_zps754ca3e6.jpg


Henry :)
 
chief1 said:
When you can get a trip like this - who needs the Med? Ok, the weather there might be more reliable, but .......

A wonderful tale Henry, much enjoyed reading and popping in to see if the next days episode had been posted - the time and trouble to post has been much appreciated by so many, not least myself.

Now, you mentioned retirement......! :)
Click to expand...


I've got a few plans for my early "retirement" :)

H.
 
A great post Henry, and I expect this to achieve legendary status. Your boat looks magnificent, and great to hear she performed so well. We aim to dribble down the north coast of Devon and Cornwall next summer, so maybe will meet you for Fish and Chips in Padstow?
 
Don't, it's all I can do to stop myself packing some clothes and heading off somewhere.

We don't make plans we'll just see what comes along. I quite fancy getting on the water in Thailand over the mid to late December period. I've a bit of a hankering after popping a boat in the water in Singapore and exploring Malaysia and Thailand in a few years.

But for the meantime I suspect we will be mainly based in the Solent over the next few weeks. No bad thing.

Henry :)
 
rafiki_ said:
A great post Henry, and I expect this to achieve legendary status. Your boat looks magnificent, and great to hear she performed so well. We aim to dribble down the north coast of Devon and Cornwall next summer, so maybe will meet you for Fish and Chips in Padstow?
Click to expand...


If we could negotiate a full week on the boat rather than just a long weekend that would make sense. Probably the best fish and chips we had was in the Red Lion Pub Dittisham. Really fresh fish which melted in your mouth washed down by a small sampling of the local brew. Just for research purposes of course. I lost my bloody notes after the first pint so had to invest in another to remind myself what to write.

Henry :)
 
chief1 said:
What's the record for the Round Britain Race??!! :)
Click to expand...

Well we sort of did the Fastnet race. We just missed out the bit of rock. Managed to come in second to last in front of Duet. I bet we had better food than them and a bit more to drink as well :)

If anything this was too fast paced for me. I need a week in a lot of these places to explore in the dinghy and look at all each place has to offer.

Henry :)
 
henryf said:
If we could negotiate a full week on the boat rather than just a long weekend that would make sense. Probably the best fish and chips we had was in the Red Lion Pub Dittisham. Really fresh fish which melted in your mouth washed down by a small sampling of the local brew. Just for research purposes of course. I lost my bloody notes after the first pint so had to invest in another to remind myself what to write.

Henry :)
Click to expand...

The Rick Stein Haddock and Chips at Padstow are really stand out. Best I have ever sampled.
 
henryf said:
I quite fancy getting on the water in Thailand over the mid to late December period. I've a bit of a hankering after popping a boat in the water in Singapore and exploring Malaysia and Thailand in a few years.
Click to expand...

Raggy boat beckons :cool:
 
Thanks for the post Henry. It has certainly inspired us to head further afield next year as our confidence grows with our new boat.

As mentioned earlier I think I found a "ducking" moment. The second chap looks to be more keen to look at you than the first. Some other photos as well.

We would have introduced ourselves to you, but when by the time we realised you were in the Marina we had decided on a few land based days...

http://s171.photobucket.com/user/nwt688/media/Boatholiday2132.jpg.html]
Boatholiday2132.jpg
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http://s171.photobucket.com/user/nwt688/media/Boatholiday2119.jpg.html]
Boatholiday2119.jpg
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http://s171.photobucket.com/user/nwt688/media/Boatholiday2129.jpg.html]
Boatholiday2129.jpg
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