Male menopause

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miket

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After 30 years of boating I am in turmoil! (I started young!!)

I have had 11 boats, starting with ex-hire boats on the Thames. I have cruised the non-tidal Thames and from Northern Holland to Northern Brittany. I have been based on both the Thames and South Coast. I have loved boating in all forms since a lad.

We have just abandoned a planned 2 week trip to Holland in August (Boat club cruise) partly because it will be so crowded then but also the cost of fuel. (£1k+)

We joined friends in Southampton for the weekend just passed. We enjoyed the company but everywhere was full. Geoff eventually managed to book a berth at Beaulieu for Saturday night. Just as well he did because by 16.00 they were turning people away.
Southampton Water and the entry to the Solent was bedlum. We felt guilty travelling even at 15kts and despite trying to give as much space as possible to the yachties we could tell from the dirty looks we were persona non grata.
On Sunday morning we went to the RAF YC on the Hamble. Very nice. But the trip up and back down the Hamble was manic! Everyone jockeying for position. It was more like commuting to London! Hardly relaxing.

Back to the Thames next weekend to do battle with all the canal boats for a Saturday night mooring.

Why am I doing this?

I am starting to understand why so many use their boats as caravans!!
 
What and like it's less crowded and manic there! Certainly not in the W Med, maybe Croatia and Greek Islands though
 
Bring her down to Falmouth. Had a great weekend with loads of sea room in Carrick Roads and Falmouth Bay. Even met CaptainShed!

Seen pictures of the Solent and I really couldn't be Ar*ed with fighting my way through all that. Boating is supposed to be relaxing not like bank holiday motorway traffic.

Got to the visitors pontoons up the river, no problem with mooring, raggies and mobo's helping each other to come alongside and make space for others etc. Thats how it should be!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Sorry.......I just love it down here and wild horses or even a big V8 wouldn't drag me to the Solent.

Cheers

JH
 
Mike come up to the swale ! To the east coast.

Unit18 (Al) and I went to Ramsgate and back to Swale(me) And Cuxton (Medway,Al) and I think we only saw about 5 boats in the all trip,

Tom
 
Makes me wonder what we want to come up to that god forsaken place for. (Not my idea) I banned the place for three years.

Trouble is, we've already been to the best places in the country, umpteen times this year and every other year. So where next. CI's is OK' ish but St hellier and St Peters Port aint much different to Accrington. Alderneys nice, but the harbours a bit iffy, as with Scillies.
 
Windermere...Thats were you wana be. Dead as something very very dead since the 10mph limit. Berths freely available, well for the cost of a small african country anyway. And not a darned thing on the lake (comparitively from previous years that is) apart from a few raggies, oh and the warden with the odd policeman aboard for company. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Ian
 
If I can leap in there. Visitor numbers are apparently down according to the Cumbria Tourist Board. We haven't noticed ourselves. However it seems that Portsmouth and Edinburgh are having a struggle as well, and I don't think our speed limit applies there.
Bad weather, early Easter, less financial confidence, and the speed limit all add up I suppose.
The lake still has new modern mobos launching...........

mallinson.jpg


It still gets really busy.........

tenacity13.jpg


Both pics taken last week.
 
There is undeniably a big change with regards to the number of boaters, more and more people moving to N wales, Scotland and of course the Med. on a weekly basis or so it seems. And in my opinion visitor numbers are down in general. We speak to Hoteliers and restaurant owners etc and they all say the same thing. This may however be a national slow down of the economy and not neccasarily as a result of the ban, indeed it would be niave to think otherwise. It has in my opinion contributed to the overall drop in numbers because I believe that a lot of visitors actually enjoyed seeing different craft including nice cruisers hacking it up the lake, it was something they could relate to having seen nice boats on progs, such as Miami vice etc. and in some cases something they cound aspire to. You speak to any boat salesman in the area and they will tell you that sales rocketed during summer hols when people were aspired (or to put it bluntly bought on a wim) due to seeing smart new cruisers with scantily clad women hanging off the deck. (I made that last bit up for effect, artistic licence I think it's called) I am sure you see my point.
So in answer to your question.....YES
Regards - Ian
 
Funnily enough I got a strange "doppleganger" feeling as I took a pic of him.
Although I'm not fungally adorned (no beard) these days.......

Not my boat, this is a huffy-puffy-steamy-coal-powered MOBO

dayonlake03.jpg
 
You can't just shave yer beard off and pretend that it aint you /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Storrs hall in the background if i'm not mistaken.
Ian
 
Every one of our cruises from the Thames starts with the Medway or Ramsgate. I'm sure they are both very nice but when you want to be in a nice gourmet restaurant in St Valery sur Somme, Anne's Panties in Ramsgate is no substitute!
There is also the small problem of driving from Basingstoke to the East Coast (we love the East Coast harbours) most weekends through grid locked traffic. No thank you. Mr 2 Jags put paid to that option a long time ago when he invited everyone from the North to live in the South and forgot about infrastructure!!

Nice try guys.
Still in turmoil.
 
Yes, and as I was helming I gave the owner the pleasure of experiencing a "new find" for the unexpected shallows map. The next shot in the sequence shows me looking overboard. The depth finder was having an off-day.
 
Try Menorca, north of Barcelona, Most parts of Ibiza, west coast of Sardinia, Parts of sicily, parts of Majorca, Tunisia all of it, Parts of Corsica. (Not in late july august) any parts of western meddy, between september and june. OK, duly enlightened?
 
Not duly enlightened at all 'coz you've added the proviso 'Not in late july august'. I know from personal experience that Ibiza, Formentera and Cote d'Azur are a total bunfight in July/Aug and, in fact, much worse than anything I've experienced in the UK during the same period in terms of getting marina berths. I'm told that Menorca is better and I hope to try there this summer
Yes, the W Med is idyllic in May, June and September but, unfortunately, for the rest of us limited to boating in school hols, its July/Aug or nothing
 
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