YACHTING                           

Have you seen the LIFEBOAT John !!! that was the question asked by our coxswain Vic Gates of the Brighton Inshore Lifeboat just shortly after it had been delivered, it seems hard to believe, but some #!!$*: had knicked it !!!! at that time, Brighton Marina, which is on the south coast of the UK. was just in the process of being built and I had just started my career as crew on the Lifeboat, (Lifeboat crew are all volunteers) To say all hell broke loose would be an understatement, just about every vessel on the water started to search for it, and I mean every vessel, including ferries, warships, fishing boats, and Coast Guards, the boat was eventually found about 26 miles offshore, after going round in circles for most of the night, the single guy on board was arrested, and bought back to shore, with the lifeboat in tow, poor chap, he did not seem very good on his feet as he kept falling down and hurting himself !!!!! and so started my life of interest in boats and the sea, I had been a Lifeboat crew member for about 16 years, moving around different stations before I had to retire off the "active list" (crew have to retire at 42 years) during this time I have had many boats, from small sailing dinghy's upto our yachts of some 45 ft in length, the one in the photo below was 36 ft length and is a one ton John Sharp special, with four transatlantic crossings under her keel, the last I heard, was that the chap that had bought it from me, was on his way to the Caribbean,

        Photo taken from "town side" of Dartmouth.

if you have never taken a boat to Dartmouth, then I would recommend it as a nice relaxing stop with some good tea rooms, nice walks, and the benefit of "exploring" the upper reaches of the dart. Just shortly after this photo was taken, we were on our way back from France, when we got caught out in a "squall" gusting to force 10, in the picture below, the sea looks quite calm ? but in fact, we had waves of some 20ft + high, the picture is of us about half way up the next wave !!

      The sea is defiantly not the place to be in a storm ?

The next yacht we bought was an "Ohlson 45" its very similar to a "Bowman" and we were lucky, as it had just about everything you could think of including, Washing machine and tumble drier, Radar, heating system, wind chargers, wind vane and auto pilot, fridge and freezer, 240v generator, and the list goes on and on, we had a lot of fun on that boat, and covered an awful lot of ground (sea) especially as at this point, we had sold our house and furniture, and decided to take three years "off" so that we could go cruising, and see some of the world, its funny though !! out of all the places that we went, the one thing that sticks in both our minds, is when we arrived after a very long trip, and pulled into Torquay at night, the picture below is "true" and is exactly what we saw as we motored into the Marina.

as we rounded the harbour entrance, thats the sight that met our eyes, we could also hear music from the town, and all the general hustle and bustle of people enjoying themselves, I think that after arriving from a long trip, feeling tired, cold, and worn out, in that instant, it was the nearest thing to "heaven" that I could think of ?? for a look at the boat we were on and to see my wife "Catherine" then click the next page, there's also a story behind the name of our boat, "White Rabbit" !!!