YACHTING Page 3

For Catherine's section go to below last picture

One thing that always gave me the "willys" about boating, was when we used to take the boat out for Hull Maintenance, anti-fouling, and hull fitting servicing, we used to have to hire a very large crane to lift her out of the water and onto land and then use "props" to hold the boat in an upright position, (if we were lucky ??) in the picture below, the boat is just about to be re-launched after having a complete re-fit below the water line, we had a bit of a problem with this launch, the crane driver lifted his jib up too far, and in doing so, bought the boat too near to the jib, so smashing the antenna, and mast top tri-colour light, I was not a happy man !! but the company paid for it all to be put right so all's well that ends well ?

                  45ft of solid boat swaying in the wind !!

I must admit, one thing I used to like when we were on passage, was to go out on deck early in the morning (about 5am) to do the regular checks for other vessels, and to make sure everything was Ok, and take the fishing rod with me and catch our breakfast, if you have never tasted fresh fish straight from the sea, and then barbecued, eaten with fresh home made bread, a good cup of tea, and watch the sun break through the early morning mist to herald yet another nice sunny day, then you really dont know what you have missed ?? In the picture below, I have just caught a "gar-fish" I dont know how many of you have heard of a gar-fish, but they are rather funny looking things ? very long and thin, with long beaks, (if thats what you call it ?) and when you cook them, the bones go a green fluorescent colour !! but Catherine, being ever resourceful, (she has travelled and lived all over the world) used to make a "Rabbit type" pie out of them, and the strange thing was, it actually tasted like rabbit !! and with a few chips out of the freezer, it was a dam good meal,

              GETTING SOME BREAKFAST FROM THE FISH MARKET ??

We made many friends while we were "boat bums" !! and it never failed to amaze me just how many time's we used to meet our friends in other ports, we were talking to one couple, and they had just returned from a trip to Australia, and they told us that after about two days there, another boat pulled into the marina and turned out to be a friend of ours that we had met in an English port, its nice to meet up with one another from time to time, for we always moor together and spend the night telling all the different stories about the different things we have experienced and done, and drinking wine till the early hours of the morning, another thing that used to amaze me was the fact that no matter where in the world you might spend the winter, you might think that your boat is the only one that is occupied !! not so, we spent the winter in England once, in a place called "Queen Ann Battery" and there must have something like another 12 boats that were "wintering" out there at the same time ?? so of course we make even more friends as the winter months pass, one thing used to crop up time and time again though, and that was the way some of the people were struggling for money once the had committed themselves to go "cruising" but I will say more about that a bit later. A very good friend of ours "Robin Davie" is one of those brave (foolhardy ??) people that race in the B.O.C. single handed round the world yacht race, and his boat "Global Exposure" has been placed very well indeed, you may have seen a picture of Robin and his boat on some of the advertisements for "Auto Helm" self steering systems ?? Robin later changed the name of his boat to "Cornish Challenger" and had the whole boat sprayed black, with gold pin stripes on the side, very posh !! and if ever there was a dedicated man to boats and single handed racing, then Robin must take first place every time ? he once ran round the whole perimeter of Cornwall on order to get sponsorship for the latest B.O.C. single handed race, in fact, on that particular race he was placed very well, but unfortunately was dismasted off the Falkland Islands and spent days sailing under "jury rig" getting back to land so that repairs could be carried out.

Robin has now completed the round the world race, to see his site and read about all the traumas, click on links, (on the nav bar) and you will find his site link there.

ROBIN DAVIE SINGLE HANDED RACE MAN (thats Catherine to the side)

I said a bit earlier about meeting people that had become very disillusioned with the cruising life, due to lack of funds, but a lot of it is how you manage your money ?? for instance Catherine and I would only go into a marine for water, and the rest of the time we would anchor off somewhere, and go ashore in the tender, it can cost anything upto and in fact over £100 per week to moor in a marina, if you anchor off, then you only pay a pittance, if anything at all ? in winter, the trick is to put the boat up for sale with the yacht agency, and so get free mooring on a pontoon for all winter, but come summer, you then remove the boat from the market !!! it only works once though, so keep a good list of different yacht yards ? it is also very important to learn some sort of skill, so that in foreign ports you are able to do odd jobs on fellow boaters yachts, and so keep topping up the kitty, another trick is to go out and meet the fishing boats on site, and have a chat with them, they will nearly always throw a couple of good sized fish over to you, which means you can then "barter" them with the local food shop in exchange for coffee or something, it is quite an art, but you get better as time goes by, I think for our whole cruising period, it worked out something like paying only £25 a week for EVERYTHING !! and we lived very well indeed, I think where a lot of couples make a mistake, is thinking its a cheap way of life, it can be, but it can also be a very expensive way of life as well !! there was one couple that we met that actually asked us how we live so well, and was we "rich" and continued to say that he was spending something like £230 a week just to live and cruise, after a very long chat, a winters course at the local college, and just a little bit of help from me "showing him the ropes" he cut his outgoing's down by two thirds !! and we were presented with a very big bottle of bubbly that we enjoyed on our next passage, the picture below is of me at the helm on passage somewhere, and I ask you, what more could you want ?? a good stiff breeze, clear skies, a smooth sea (well, nearly ??) and a stiff drink to warm the belly.

Meet your Match! CLICK HERE to go to John's meeting place