Have you ever felt small?

I was in a bar with a delivery skipper friend we were talking with a group of other sailors about well.. sailing.. and one of them asked my friend if he had sailed from the Uk to Thailand? He said yes paused for a moment and then said three times. We all just looked at him and changed the subject.
 
Years ago (mid '80s) I was alongside at the then local Bukh dealers having the engine removed for a camshaft replacement, on my Liz 30. I had sailed back there from Cherbourg without an engine and right up to the quay, quite proud of myself. At the same dealers was another Liz 30 with a totally seized engine and I asked where he had come from since we owned similar boats. Florida but via the Azores he said. Good boats Liz 30s, even without long keels.:)
 
Allan said:
I was on a delivery trip from Plymouth to Cardiff a couple of weeks ago. Just out of Plymouth we found the alternator was not charging. I decided, "it was good enough for the old sailors, it will be good enough for us". So we carried on, no instruments, interior only lit but an oil lamp, saving the batteries by only using nav lights when there were other boats around. Paper charts spread out on the chart table. When we needed the engine it could be started by hand. I felt so proud!
Of course, we did have two handheld GPS units, Navionics on an iPhone, web based AIS on two other phones and a couple of VHF radios!
You have admire the proper sailors of old.
Allan
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Oy! Not THAT old! Thats how it was when I first started early 60's as a matter of course. Hurri lamp for nav and cabin, paper charts and a compass. Oh and a Seagull strapped to the transom mainly for decorative purposes. It was rarely functional. Phone call? well I once walked 4 miles to find a working phone box. Sat Nav? A gadget on Dr Who's Tardis maybe - but on a boat? Depth finder? a piece of cord with a lead weight. It was a big day when an old car battery was wired to a electric glow worm thing which passed as electric light in the cabin in those days! Radio? well if you needed help you let off some fireworks and hoped somebody noticed. Weather forecast? Up at 6.40am regardless for the shipping forecast on the tranny. Nostalgic? No way, wouldnt go back to that again. But boats CAN be sailed that way still.
 
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>IIRC the Pardy's are fanatical about this approach

We know a number of boats who know the Pardy's. If there is a narrow entance into a bay or a reef entry they call ahead to ask for a tow in/out. Strange they never mention that in their books.

The boats we know who know don't like them for their dishonesty and try to avoid them.
 
KellysEye said:
We know a number of boats who know the Pardy's. If there is a narrow entance into a bay or a reef entry they call ahead to ask for a tow in/out. Strange they never mention that in their books.
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If they did, they'd have to explain how they make the call, since they claim not to have a VHF either :)

(To be fair, their books are quite old now, so things will have changed since.)

Pete
 
KellysEye said:
>IIRC the Pardy's are fanatical about this approach

We know a number of boats who know the Pardy's. If there is a narrow entance into a bay or a reef entry they call ahead to ask for a tow in/out. Strange they never mention that in their books.

The boats we know who know don't like them for their dishonesty and try to avoid them.
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We have actually met and liked the Pardeys, and had a tour of Seraffyn and coffees with them. In one of their books they actually said that if they were based around these parts they understood the need for an engine, IIRC that was after drifting aground with the tide in the Solent just outside of Lymington. Larry Pardey even spent time in Poole working at Crusader Sails to learn how to repair them and do canvas work.

I would say anyone avoiding them was the loser, not the Pardeys.
 
Back in the 1993 I was in QAB Plymouth, and got vchatting to an old guy on a 26 foot Westerly. I asked him where he had come from and he said "Fowey". I asked him how long it had taken and he said "Eighteen months as he was sailing around Brittain in day sails having retired." Inspired me.
 
Had supper with a 91yr old man last night who's still an active sailor. He's had macular degeneration for the last ten years, but still sails his (long-keel) 38 footer with his wife, often up to Scotland from the south coast. He's done lots of round-Britains and Irelands (but as he's only gone around Cape Wrath and not the Shetland Islands he doesn't consider this a true RB), and has crossed the Atlantic several times. He also survived serious injury and captivity by Jerry on the retreat to Dunkirk, was prisoner-swapped in 1943 suffering from TB and complications surrounding his injuries - and is one of the most intelligent, generous and liberal-minded people I've ever met. It was a delight to be his audience for the evening, while his wife smiled and ocassionally winked at me whilst he was raconteuring.

Anyway, of his many anecdotes, he told the story of a single-hander trying to get into Brighton in particularly bad weather. As an orange inflatable hove into view with three persons on board, he admonished them for being out in a flimsy craft in such conditions. It turned out that he had just crossed the Atlantic - and the inflatable was in fact the inshore lifeboat launched to assist him!
 
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