Forum Dive cruise On Blue Angel october 2013

[Pinnacle]

This is what the stabs look like when in operation from on-board. Note also the grim colour of the water and the poor weather.

 

[BartW]

just want to say that Elly and myself enjoyed this FDC as much as all guests,
from some we new what could be expected (and not to )
and for the new guests this was honestly a very nice acquaintance.

I'm glad that we were able to pass the 2 windy day's also "interesting"
and that we have been out on the last day saturday, including a wreck dive on our most popular dive site (L'arroyo)

the ending of this 2013FDC is also the ending for us of a long but interesting season in the med,
after the 5 stressfull weeks of stabiliser installation,
we were able to enjoy the stabbed boat no less the 11 weeks,
its going to be a tough period the coming weeks for me to "Kick off"

while adding some figures in the logbook,
I noticed this season
the engines ran: 230hrs, (now totalling >2800hrs !!)
the stabs ran 800 hrs !!!
we sailed 1800 miles
yes most of it at 10kn (and lots of time waiting during dives at 0kn with engines on)
but every now and then blasting at 20kn, like last wednesday, in order to get home before sun set, to spot the fish pots on the coast, and pass through the small Toulon bay side entrance, and to see something of the nice coast along "Les Mourillions...

 

[BartW]

This is what the stabs look like when in operation from on-board. Note also the grim colour of the water and the poor weather.

for those interested,
if you listen carefully, you can hear the "humming" sound from the stabs,
you can here this (very quite) outside,
and also in the master bedroom.

on one occasion (not during this FDC)
the swell during the night was that strong and perpendicular to the soft wind direction(Villefranche),
so we switched on the genny and stabs while sleeping,
and I can assure that the humming noise from the stabs in the cabin, was a lot less anoying than the rolling without stabs,
now we could have some decent sleep

 

[BartW]

Ok, I'll throw in another appetizer, i.e. a short clip with a collage of some FDC moments.

very nice appetizer P,
could be used as a promotional film,
can I place a link on BA's website ?

 

[MapisM]

Of course B, don't even ask!
Actually, some of the clips which I used to cut the video were taken by K, when I borrowed him the GoPro.
But I'm pretty sure that he will also be glad to see some of his videos on BA website.
Btw, I still have the original files and the Movie Maker project, so I can easily make changes.
I mean, adding titles, make it longer, include pics... whatever you might think is appropriate for publishing on BA website.
Just email me any idea which pops to your mind, it would be a pleasure to work on them!

 

[scubaman]

That's a very nicely put together video M!

Having had a quick look at the raw material it's easy to see how to improve the filming part of it in the future...

B, of course, feel free the use the vids any way you like.

Re the stabs: the little humming noise the stabs create is indeed very unobtrusive. They do make such a difference, though. Stabs rock!

 

[MapisM]

Thanks K, glad you appreciated.
It's surely far from the quality you'd expect in a proper promo video, but neither of us were thinking of that usage while shooting, to start with...

 

[scubaman]

Here are a couple of pics from the fabulous cruise.

Started off from Antibes where we met up with cruise participants and visiting forumites on Sunday afternoon.

We were moored right next to the billionaires quay.

In the morning we hoisted the official Forum Dive Cruise 2013 flag in to the pole and got ready for the new adventures...

Heading off towards Villefrance for the first dive.

Some posh villas at Cap Ferrat.

A well know forumite made a drive by as we approached.

With the first dive done, we continued to Monaco which was full so we poked in for a quick look.

To be continued...

 

[scubaman]

We continued on to neighboring Menton which turned out the be a very nice town with a cosy Marina. The swell was causing headache to our neighbor (an Azimut 68) and it's single female occupant. Gallant as we were, we managed to get the situation under control and prevent further damage by lassoing an extra buoy (Elly's idea really ) to keep the boat's passarelle away from the contrete. Our famished lady in distress (not being able to go out for dinner) also got what was left from the days dinner so all ended reasonably well. There was some damage to the boat's passarelle.

Anyway...

Second dive off Cap Ferrant (I think?). The hi-lo -platform with Bart's new railings worked brilliantly. The BDC's are attached to the said rail, the platform lowered so you can don it just sitting on the edge of the fixed part. Platform is then raised and off we go. To get back, the platform is lowered for the divers to crawl on and then upped again for taking off the gear.

The rails.

And diving.

Next stop Iles de Lerins off Cannes.

Our hosts had kindly arranged a flyby, which was nice.

Part of the crew took the tender to Cannes for drinks and shopping while the others did a very very nice wall dive between the islands. Once everybody were back, we drove past Cannes to Theoule, a very pittoresque anchorage.

En route.

To be continued...

 

[scubaman]

Stayed on anchor for the night.

Following morning indeed was very pretty. We took the tender for a bread run and missed the forum directions by 10 mins but found a good patisserie non the less.

As Bart mentioned earlier, due to severe winds on the forecast he had to make the hard but only right decision to continue to Toulon early. Winds were picking up as we went along. Off St Tropez was Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez in full swing.

Some of our SoF forumites probably recognize this

The famous red dot bay

After two very nice dives on Porquerolles that day we continued towards Toulon.

Blue Angel back in Toulon.

Morning market just next to the marina.

 

[scubaman]

On Friday Mapis and S left for home and six of us headed to Port Grimaud and St Tropez on Bart's car which he very kindly lent us. The Voiles... was on but due to high winds all the action on the sea was cancelled so the marina was packed with very very beatiful boats.

On Saturday the winds had died down completely so we headed off for a wreck dive (L'Arroyo).

After lunch at anchor we headed back to Toulon. I wouldn't want to negotiate this gap in the concrete in a storm...

Many more beatiful pictures in store as well as countless priceless memories of this fabulous cruising ground and the fantastic time we had on the cruise to cherish in the fortcoming winter months. Thank you again to B & E and everybody on the cruise for an unforgettable time.

 

[Firefly625]

great pics, thanks for lightening my day!

 

[alt]

scuba - Those pics are amazing, better than real life! Thanks for putting those together and taking so many pics throughout the week, will serve as great memories

 

[jfm]

Great pictures as always Scubaman, thanks.

 

[oceanfroggie]

Superb pics. They tell the story so well.

 

[Pinnacle]

And just in case you were wondering what a bunch of neoprene clad Forumites were able to knock up in the kitchen ( well their SWMBO'S actually! ) to eat during the week, this will give you an idea.....

Click to get the full flavour!


View attachment 35849

 

[MapisM]

scuba - Those pics are amazing, better than real life! Thanks for putting those together and taking so many pics throughout the week, will serve as great memories

+1 on everything N said, also on behalf of S!

And talk about just in time!
Your pics (also those you sent us via dropbox, many thanks) made a great show tonight on our beamer, while explaining to some friends what the FDC was about...

I was particularly impressed by the colours and contrast of some of them, like those of Menton at dusk, for instance.
Just curious, did you use some HDR function provided by the camera, or post processing, or anything else?

 

[scubaman]

It's a combination of many things. A good lens goes a long way in retaining the colors as does a decent image sensor. A good sensor also gives you more shades of colors (dynamic range) which makes a big difference in how the pic looks.

During post processing (I use Adobe Lightroom) I often like to slightly boost the contrast and tweak the unsaturated colors a bit (note, different than boosting saturation) to give a bit of punch to the image. Sometimes a graduated filter has to be applied if, say the top of the image is very bright and bottom dark. I did this with the Menton pic, well spotted, btw. The same effect could be achieved by physically placing a graduated filter in front of the lens.

Often it's also a case of lighting the different areas of the picture, using a flash, so the brightness is more even as with some of the pics taken from BA's bow towards the sun.

Perhaps the single most important thing however is the color of the ambient light which in the case of SoF is as good as it gets. Many boat brochures are shot there in the evening light.

In many magazines and better quality newspapers you often see heavily edited images these days to increase the visual impact and to match their 'style'. I don't like that so much but at the same time feel that as even the best digital sensors are still no match to the human eye which can pick so much more shades and compensate between bright and dark areas, pics often need touching during pp. This is not something brought about by the digital era, either. Ansel Adams spent days in the darkroom to get his pictures right. Also many of the terms used in today's image editors (like dodging and burning, etc.) date back to the times when photography was invented.

Some prefer the untouched style, some find slightly edited more visually pleasing. No right or wrong there although it's a fine line between natural and ott unnatural look. I'm (hopefully) on a constant learning curve trying different things...

Here are the original images without any tweaks

 

[MapisM]

It's a combination of many things.
...

Interesting stuff K, thanks for the explanations.
Btw yep, I didn't ask about pics like BA bow at sunset, because the fill flash technique in that case was pretty obvious.
And not just because of the nice light on the bow, which would have been very dark otherwise.
The flash was also given away by the reflection on the steel fender holder.
In fact, I hope you don't mind if I took the liberty to remove it from that very nice pic of yours.
Though actually, the main reason why I played with that a bit was to bring back to life a small but important detail, which was too far from the flash to be properly filled.
A very easy spot the difference, on these before and after pics - see below...

 

[lanerboy]

The flag ??