Lightwave395
Well-known member
I use the public loo by the chapel, heated seat even !
Places/countries you would *not* visit again
- Thread starter Roberto
- Start date
I use the public loo by the chapel, heated seat even !
sfellows
Active member
Brixham. Overpriced Marina.
Parents took us on holiday there when I was growing up in the late 60's. Either Brixham has gone down in the world or I've gone up in the world!
Parents took us on holiday there when I was growing up in the late 60's. Either Brixham has gone down in the world or I've gone up in the world!
johnalison
Well-known member
Brixham in general suffers much in the same way as Weymouth in that they are both lovely places let down by the quality of the visitors. I found the marina in Brixham to be offhand and charmless on the couple of occasions we stopped there, though the YC floating pontoon was pleasant. When our son and family took a holiday cottage in Brixham they were a bit put out when we chose to join them in our boat not at Brixham but at nearby Dartmouth, or rather Kingswear, but they saw the point when they got there.
Barnacle Bill
Active member
Al Hoceima Morocco.
"The seaside resort of Al Hoceima / Is greatly in need of a cleaner / The flies are the size / of Elephants' eyes / And the amenities couldn't be meaner "
Composed in 1996, it may have improved since then.
The assumption by the Moroccan authorities seemed to be that the only possible reason you could be visiting Morocco would be to score drugs. So every time you left a port you had to check out, and the boat was searched independently by about four different authorities (harbour authority, local police, national police, customs, immigration). You checked in at the next port just along the coast, and the same thing would happen all over again on departure from that place.
I had to restrain my crew from pretending to lift a really heavy weight as they lifted the fenders off the guardrail as we set off - the only place nobody had searched!
"The seaside resort of Al Hoceima / Is greatly in need of a cleaner / The flies are the size / of Elephants' eyes / And the amenities couldn't be meaner "
Composed in 1996, it may have improved since then.
The assumption by the Moroccan authorities seemed to be that the only possible reason you could be visiting Morocco would be to score drugs. So every time you left a port you had to check out, and the boat was searched independently by about four different authorities (harbour authority, local police, national police, customs, immigration). You checked in at the next port just along the coast, and the same thing would happen all over again on departure from that place.
I had to restrain my crew from pretending to lift a really heavy weight as they lifted the fenders off the guardrail as we set off - the only place nobody had searched!
Blueboatman
Well-known member
My old step mum is pushing pretty hard to change attitudes in Gt Y. She’s got a manifesto and feets on the ground and a track record and all!
linky if you like
Plans for Yarmouth industrial area slammed by regeneration pioneer
Poignard
Well-known member
Good for her!
?jdc
Well-known member
I didn't visit it 20 years ago ( I was never posted there), but today it is fascinating but chaotic certainly. Everyone I met v friendly 'tho.
Biggles Wader
Well-known member
Try it 50 years ago. Even Paul McCartney got mugged at gunpoint there.
IanCC
Active member
All the places i have had the best of times. It's never the same again.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
I have to say that I find it odd that an accomplished sailor, like yourself, would complain about a berth like that. I have been in several marinas with some angled berths. Willemstad & Boulogne spring to mind. There is enough room to park & from the picture it is difficult to see any problem with the length of the pontoon. Your bow is right into the angle with the stern stuck out so it makes it look tighter than it might actually have been. We cannot see the wall that you talk about, but 40 ft sounds acceptable to give one room to turn a 32 ft boat. The fact that someone had left some warps over the cleats is quite common in marinas & usually solved very easily.
Of course we have all met awkward HMs & that can be a different matter when one arrives tired & just needing rest rather than hassle. Been there, done it, had the T shirt
doris
Well-known member
Just about anywhere in Fiji. The reefs are terrifying and if you touch them you're probably stuck!
Daydream believer
Well-known member
I do sometimes wonder what the attraction is. Once one has seen one heather clad rocky crag one has seen them all. Marinas are a bit backward. Which applies to many, once one moves north from lowestoft or Milford Haven ( what a dump). I found Hartlepool OK as a marina, but little else. Blyth is a port of refuge but has nothing in its favour. Scarborough is in competition with the marina at Oban ( Isle of Keran)for the scankiest in the country.Strange that no-one has yet mentioned Scotland and killer midges yet.
The bloke that designed the showers & loos at Eastbourne should be forced to have a shower in there, after a crew have just visited & unloaded last night's curry & beer. Then he should die. Assuming he has managed to survive the smell, whilst being subjected to a shower in the smell of anothers intestines.
Whoever puts a loo in a public shower cubicle should be shot -- with the contents.
Closer to home one tends to be ashamed of the River Medway. But go round the corner & I reckon Ramsgate is a great place to visit. Our club used to love calling there, on the way home from Boulogne. Sadly stopped, due to Boulogne no longer being a port of entry/departure.
Dover is just a stop over. Nothing else.
I disagree about Camaret. Although the toilets are a bit "primative". I like walking in the hills looking at the bomb craters from WW!!. Sadly they are gradually filling in as the years go by. The views towards the Chenal Du Four & the Raz are quite good
Tradewinds
Well-known member
I actually enjoyed my time in Colon. Al Mukalla in Yemen was a good stop too and we enjoyed Djibouti. Oman was special. In fact the only place that didn’t quite live up to expectations was NZ. Wonderful scenery though. I can’t actually think of any major stopover place on our travels that we wouldn’t visit again - and only a few anchorages I’d definitely give a miss. Maybe I’m easily pleased.
escapism
Member
Brunsbuttel - excellent place for a good kip if you're knackered before/after the Kiel Canal, but truly horrible sanitary facilities and the locale has probably never ever appeared on a tourist itinerary.
Mohammedia ( Morocco) - visited to avoid poor Atlantic weather as an alternative to Casablanca. Crumbling old colonial buildings and no local jobs so everyone you meet wants a 'sub'.
Mohammedia ( Morocco) - visited to avoid poor Atlantic weather as an alternative to Casablanca. Crumbling old colonial buildings and no local jobs so everyone you meet wants a 'sub'.
jamie N
Well-known member
It's a good thread, that got me thinking.
For a start off, most of my life I've never refused to go to any of the established shitholes around the globe, I've just raised my day-rate, and let the client decide whether it's worth it.
West Africa has so many choices of 'neveragainsville' that it's spoilt for choice, with a gem of Port Gentile in Gabon excelling by being the opposite of its neighbours in so many ways, and possibly a safer place than where I now live.
That's work though, so not on my own boat, where I've been fortunate in never feeling that anywhere was irredeemably awful, so with only ever having been outside of the place, and of having chatted with members of it, I'd say that the 'Squadron' would rank below Pointe Noire, where I was shot at, Sfax where I was under house arrest or Caju from where I was deported.
Happy days.
For a start off, most of my life I've never refused to go to any of the established shitholes around the globe, I've just raised my day-rate, and let the client decide whether it's worth it.
West Africa has so many choices of 'neveragainsville' that it's spoilt for choice, with a gem of Port Gentile in Gabon excelling by being the opposite of its neighbours in so many ways, and possibly a safer place than where I now live.
That's work though, so not on my own boat, where I've been fortunate in never feeling that anywhere was irredeemably awful, so with only ever having been outside of the place, and of having chatted with members of it, I'd say that the 'Squadron' would rank below Pointe Noire, where I was shot at, Sfax where I was under house arrest or Caju from where I was deported.
Happy days.
Tranona
Well-known member
Indeed. Early 70s was a nightmare in the aftermath of the Biafran war.
Skylark
Well-known member
No wish to return to Croatia. Arrived there twice by boat. First arrival was approx 01h00 on a Sunday after being battered by heavy seas making passage from Corfu to (windward) Italian east coast. We incorrectly assumed a port of refuge but, no, police boat was waiting for us and escorted us another couple of hours to a port of entry and a heavy fine.
Second time was into Pula. Female official showed us our AIS track, said that we did not travel “direct to port so I’m going to issue a fine”. She reluctantly stood down when we explained that we turned head to wind to drop the sails before entering port.
Second time was into Pula. Female official showed us our AIS track, said that we did not travel “direct to port so I’m going to issue a fine”. She reluctantly stood down when we explained that we turned head to wind to drop the sails before entering port.
NormanS
Well-known member
Griminish lived up to its name. ?
oldmanofthehills
Well-known member
It is a great cruising base with its own giant estuary to play in if too bouncy out to sea, and access to Jack Sound, Solva and Ramsey. We guested there for two summers and call in regularly to and fro Ireland. However I dont think much of Milford Town and Marina and but prefer Neyland Marina or the mooring close by, and love Dale.
oldmanofthehills
Well-known member
There are places I would choose not to need to visit again but thats different. Industrial fishing ports with odd entrances and absolutely no facilities can be surprisingly welcoming.
In one N Ireland one which we entered on realisation that we could not make a better haven before a F7 blew through, the harbour master directed us alongside various trawlers saying we might have to move as they came and went. The crews of the trawlers did their best to avoid disturbance to us and greatly eased my faith in humanity. I was too exhausted to explore the probably ugly town but content to remain "Safe in the Harbour" while I rested
In one N Ireland one which we entered on realisation that we could not make a better haven before a F7 blew through, the harbour master directed us alongside various trawlers saying we might have to move as they came and went. The crews of the trawlers did their best to avoid disturbance to us and greatly eased my faith in humanity. I was too exhausted to explore the probably ugly town but content to remain "Safe in the Harbour" while I rested
