21 degrees, can't be October

Yet another beautiful Saturday - seemed a great opportunity to grab a last family outing in the the flyer.

Decided to meet my sisters at the beachut for bacon baps - the only problem with that is it's a lee shore landing... I should have known better.

After several waves over the back end I quickly turned the boat around and wave by wave eased the boat back into the water. Spent 10 mins bailing out!! Then anchored off the beach wondering how I would join the others... at least I had the lunch so they couldn't be eating already!! Adam Parsons heroically undressed to his 'scanks' and swam out with a dinghy.

As we are eating lunch Rebecca said "I don't mean to worry you, but hasn't your boat moved!!" NOOooooooooooooooooo... the constant pulling on the anchor rope meant it untied off the front. Adam back into his scanks whilst running across the beach (the alternative baywatch!), rescued the boat. I got the engine running and headed back out to find my floating rope!

That was almost the end of the fun, but loading 5 PLUS A DOG back onto the boat to return home was quite a spectacle. I hope we provided hours of amusement to others on the beach as I fought to get a big labrador into a 2 man dinghy and braved the waves!!

Definately one we will remember for a while!! and not try a lee shore landing again!!

Nearly a month with no flying

Doing my back in put paid to September on the water... been a long month watching it sit in the drive.

Arrows of pain

Well the day didn't go exactly as planned, but we took Andy, Karen & Eloise to see the Bournemouth Air Show 2008. Having launched the boat I was parking the trailer, and tried to lift the back end of the trailer around a corner... shooting pain down my back again... OUCH. Carried on though, easterly wind so very rough difficult to anchor off the pier (alongside the Gillinghams), kept drifting, virtually hit a rather nice Moody yacht (sorry). In the end moved into the shallows to anchor, but Sam felt sick because of the swell. Gave up and went to Brownsea... pain in the back was getting very bad now, so totally gave up and went home. Andy did a great job reversing the trailer down the slipway, I drove the boat on and he then pulled it up to the top. Finally Andy reversed the boat back into the drive at home. THANKS ANDY & KAREN and sorry it wasn't quite as planned.

Nice photo's though!! and the back will get better with a little help from Heather.

Summer Breeze

Sam and I went out at 8:30pm with John & Ali Woodgate and met up with one of Sam's colleagues Patrick Thorne in his rib. Took a look at Bournemouth Pier, where John & I had a quick swim. Water still beautifully warm - in my wetsuit!

Fireworks @ 10pm, fantastic! Think we were the closest boat - or rather everyone else was more sensible and moved back when they started... but very impressive.

Old Haunts

Explored the Percuil today, and had lunch at the Trewince Quay - an old haunt since as a child we used to stay at Trewince every year.

Its Falmouth regatta week, so rather a lot of boats about!

Watery Chinese

Grabbed a Chinese in Penryn then headed to St Just again - picked up a spare mooring and sat eating our meal. Nice end to the day...

Potty training and boating don't go very well together though - "Not on the fishies daddy" !! Priceless.

Inflatable fun!

ok, so its not the Kahuna, but we collected this inflatable whilst in hCornwall, so it seemed a shame not to take it to the beach!

Here at Maenporth beach - thus proving the sun did shine on our holiday!

Had to add this extra photo of Rachie, she found a love for the sea on this holiday.

Crabbing with Pandora

I've always wanted to arrive at the Pandora Inn by boat but have never had the opportunity. Tonight we went to the Pandora for beer & crabbing (obviously the beer was for me, the crabbing for the kids!).

The crabs were very sociable tonight and it seems they all wanted to come and see us. Beth & Eleanor caught about 50! and loved it.

Smuggling a Cream Tea

Went up the River Fal as far as Malpas today. Had lunch in Church Creek (managed to move a mooring...Sorry!). Then landed at Smugglers Cottage for a cream tea. Have to say it was the best cream tea I have ever had. None of the usual dry scones, because they had literally just come out the aga.

This is what holidays are all about!

Croissants anyone?

When you wake up and its a brillant sunny day it seems rude not to take a salcombe flyer and some croissants and have breakfast afloat. What a start!

The Browns

Whilst on holiday we met a really nice family - the browns, who had children almost the same age as ours. We went to see St Mawes with them. Gregory is clearly destined for rally driving or something after confidence steering the boat.

Thanks for a great time!

Fishing in the Fal

Down on holiday in Cornwall we put the boat on the pontoon at Mylor Harbour fantastic to be able to just pop out for a short trip and not have to launch/recover. Perfect for a holiday!

Sadly nothing was biting tonight... but good fun trying

St Just by boat

So here we are on holiday in Cornwall with the boat at Mylor. Here on an evening trip across to St Just. Very high tide so could easily get to see that lovely church at the top of the creek.

I think this is going to be a good holiday!

Put your nets down the other side

After being in the 'upper room', 8 of us headed out for a quick fish (aka John 20). Those 'disciples' present were: James Tarrant, John Tarrant (almost the sons of Zebedee), John Woodgate, Mark Peddle, James Brown, David Austin, Andy Avery and myself. It turned out to be quite an evening.
With 3 fishing rods we lowered our feathers into the water (just off the end of Old Harry). The lines didn't feel right as they went down, so wound in to find we had all caught on all our hooks!! 11 fish in as many seconds!! Ended the evening with 55 mackerel... but sadly Jesus was not on the beach in the morning to cook our breakfast. Suspect a few talks will make reference to this evening!

Too early start...

I had a bright idea to start the day at 04:00 for a seriously early fish. Somehow mustered 6 friends: John Tarrant, James Tarrant, John Woodgate, James Brown, Andy Avery, David Austin so in the dark we arrived at Baiter in the pouring rain. Sadly baiter doesn't open till 6am !!!

So we launched at "Slipway" (aptly named road!!) next to the RNLI building. It was a rough old morning with limited visibility in the water, so feathers were not very succesful. James Tarrant landed the first fish, I kindly removed the hook, attempt the kill - but the fish made a last leap at the water. That was that last we saw of that one!!

Lesson for the day, don't start so early... stay in bed.

Mackeral anyone?

First decent catch of makeral today when John Woodgate, Andy Avery and myself headed out for a Saturday morning fish and snorkel. They were very nice BBQ'd in the evening with the family.
Visibility not great for snorkeling though, only saw one crab hiding in the weed.

Birthday splash

Joined for the day by my sister and their family - it was Ben's 14th birthday. Time for some fun in the ringo!

Double vision

John Gilly liked the flyer so much, he went and bought his own! "The Rose" also has a 90hp, so here's hoping for some great skiing sessions. Here a rare sight outside Salcombe in Devon...

Pottery Tea

Beautiful sunny summer evening, warm gentle breeze, tea at Pottery Pier on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour. Beth was away on a school camp so, Sam, Eleanor, Rachel and I headed off.

We were just there long enough to watch the sun set...

Haven on the beach

Not exactly blue sky, but a great day at the beach today after lunch at Pottery Pier. Took the Woodgates for a spin to Old Harry... maybe a little too fast at times :(

Doggies anyone?

John Woodgate and I headed out for a morning fish, caught nothing but dogfish - we decided to try them once, probably won't again! Very strange gutting a fish that keeps moving! Even the fillet of fish would move when poked hours after it died.... very strange!

Everything stands still

Sometimes all you can say is wow! Broke the frost off the boat cover this morning in the dark at 6am wondering what on earth I was doing. Made our way out to Old Harry, and this was waiting for us!!