what your Favorite bit of boating

Well the boat is still in the workshop and I can only work on her on my odd day off but every time I open the workshop doors and see her on the stand, BIG SMILES……

I think after the first trip out it my take an operation to have the smile removed!:D
 
Where do I begin, well I guess driving the two Nortechs we had at 100kts+ has to be high on the list, also delivering a V70 from Stavanger to Bergen and blasting back at 50kts+ in a Hydrolift S24.
Testing anything bigger than 50ft, and I always look forward to the manouvering in and out of marinas, I just love the challenge and as Volvopaul says its easier the bigger the boat.
I also get a kick out of taking non boaty friends on trips to places only accessable by sea and seeing their enjoyment at having a day on the water.
But best of all is sitting in my own boat with my wife, moored up at one of the hundreds of islands around Stavanger, sunbathing with an ice cold pearcider and one of her famous picnics and a good book, then cruising slowly home as the sun sets.
 
For me.........

It's a really early morning start, when the sea is still as smooth as glass. A couple of hours run to get somewhere nice, nothing has gone wrong, the wife has done some helming, the kids haven't killed each other over who sits where.

Then we arrive somewhere new, tie up, switch off, sort out....... then go and explore.

Can't beat it..... and thats why we do it.
 
One that none of the motor boaters will experience.

The satisfaction of picking up the mooring under sail!
 
powerskipper said:
I mean the ones that just make you grin widely.





What are yours.?
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In the beginning
It was the fact I could bounce around with a two stroke noisy thing and the smell of petrol and oil
After a life of throwing two stroke motorcycles at the Scenery
After a bit it was the joy of taking the wife an kids on the water without the prospect of killing/drowning/causing them Trauma!
A few years later it was the joy of arriving where we had set out to
A bit later on it was the joy of arriving where we wanted to and returning without a 'domestic' and berthing where we wanted to!
Now
As Tim Griffin said
It's great when Peeps get it right
Then to see Peeps really enjoying their boats and venturing further afield
Do remember the first time I went 'Foreign' solo
That was Magic
Anglesey to the I.O.M!
Christopher Columbus, I thought I was
No gismos, just charts an stuff
Seems funny now
But 25 years ago it seemed like a huge adventure
Think that was/is my best memory
Apart from all those with the Family when we used to go afloat without a care in the World and no idea where the bleedin heck we would end up and what to do when we got there:D
swmbo still says we were lucky we weren't all drowned/injured or maimed for life:rolleyes:
 
best bit's

For me it has to be that very special moment when you have finally fix the toilet & before it goes wrong again!!!,the other one is after a channel crossing entering the west entrance @ cherbourg safe&sound allways makes me smile,if i am allowed another,i am usually grinning all the way down the little russel & into Peter Port,regardsmm1.
 
Swimming under the boat and seeing it floating from below, pulling myself down the anchor chain...................
 
seine cruise

Taking my S28 all the way down the seine to Paris, the feeling i got while criusing past the tower was fantastic.
 
Hi

yes started from the hamble, crossed to Le havre then into the seine. spent 4days getting to paris with 3 overnight stays on the way. Great
 
First ever Channel crossing. It was only Ramsgate to Calais, but it just felt so good once we'd picked up a buoy in the waiting area. Fantastic sense of achievement that will always stay with me.
 
For me it's simply when I park first time and perfectly. It's the one thing about boating that causes the most aprehension for me so when I get just right it makes me smile with complete contentment. Sad but true :):)
Lisa
 
lisilou said:
For me it's simply when I park first time and perfectly. It's the one thing about boating that causes the most aprehension for me so when I get just right it makes me smile with complete contentment. Sad but true :):)
Lisa
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Not at all sad. That's the tricky bit for most people. Even now I can still give an inner smile when I get it right in a difficult situation.

Just because we are instructors, it does mean we take a good "landing" for granted. It's perhaps that we tend to put boats into more smaller and difficult holes than most. And there isn't instructor out there that has not ballsed it up on occasions!

The best for me frankly is getting into a tight space with the tide doing crazy things and ferry gliding in, either ahead or astern.

During my Yachtmaster Instructor "test" the examiner asked me to go between one of the gaps between the piles on the Hamble in front of Hamble Point marina, the tide was absolutely hoofing out and he asked me to hold the boat stationary into the tide, and oh he said stern to. How long I said, until I tell you stop he said! Put the boat in the gap and held it there until he said go - I felt great afterwards, it was at least 3 minutes held into the full tidal flow and I felt pretty good as I pulled out. Flying around at high speed is the easy, the most satisfying is getting the close quarter stuff right.
 
Solitaire said:
Not at all sad. That's the tricky bit for most people. Even now I can still give an inner smile when I get it right in a difficult situation.

Just because we are instructors, it does mean we take a good "landing" for granted. It's perhaps that we tend to put boats into more smaller and difficult holes than most. And there isn't instructor out there that has not ballsed it up on occasions!

The best for me frankly is getting into a tight space with the tide doing crazy things and ferry gliding in, either ahead or astern.

During my Yachtmaster Instructor "test" the examiner asked me to go between one of the gaps between the piles on the Hamble in front of Hamble Point marina, the tide was absolutely hoofing out and he asked me to hold the boat stationary into the tide, and oh he said stern to. How long I said, until I tell you stop he said! Put the boat in the gap and held it there until he said go - I felt great afterwards, it was at least 3 minutes held into the full tidal flow and I felt pretty good as I pulled out. Flying around at high speed is the easy, the most satisfying is getting the close quarter stuff right.
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that's what I'll be practicing this year... 7 times out of 10 I get it right but I continue to misjudge things too frequently and perform a 'controlled crash' when I do, regroup and have another go.. the biggest frustration for me is holding the boat stationary in strong tides, winds etc whilst waiting outside a fuel pontoon for example... simply find it difficult to achieve with my boat (single engine sterndrive 25ft).

I can feel a "what frustrates you the most thread" coming on;)
 
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