Yes, when I talk about the ferry captains being great at avoiding accidents I confine that description to them. Tbf, the Red Jet isn't anywhere near as manouverable simply because it is moving at great speed. In my experience, looking from various angles at how the Red Jet operates, if someone accused the Red Jet pilots of using gangway/coming through tactics, I couldn't disagree. I've seen it done by them. Always have a light going at dusk. Even if it is just a torch shining on the sail. It makes a huge difference. The darkness, even in the Solent or Southampton Water, is amazingly dark. Boats just disappear in the gloom. Tankers just can't get out of the way. Let me choose my words carefully here. A leisure sailor has to pretty bloody thick to find themselves on a collision course. Yet it happens. The secret, as Shaw Taylor used to tell us, is to keep 'em peeled. Spotting a tanker half a mile away on a converging course is way too close. Trouble is, things happen way quicker than people think, and before they know it, the tanker is bearing down on them and they have no searoom at all. Most problems occur round the Brambles at low tide. Then a keel boat usually runs out of room and has to cross the bows of the tanker to get away. Then the wind drops and they can't start the motor. The tanker gives five horn blasts and it's all in the hands of fate and the tide. I've seen it happen too many times. Thankfully, never been that close myself. Very sorry to hear about the Red Jet accident. To misquote the old saying, not many things happen worse than at sea.
Oh well, I have just added to the coffers, so they had better stick the money I have just spent on one full strip (the boy, not me... honest) and two shirts, in to signing Toby!!! Over 211 Great British Pounds
I know, it is scandalously expensive, but I will not cut my nose off here as I like having the shirt, my son likes having the full kit (he is actually paying for his full strip himself from the money he earned in the tea hut) and it's my Dad's birthday, so we'll get him one for his present.
Better to be safe methinks, we'll rename sauerkraut to liberty cabbage and arrest all the dachshunds! Actually last year in the build up to the G20 visit i saw all the millitary build up around here, pretty insane. We had fighter planes (F18s i think) actually swerving through the high rise buildings in the city. Absolutely deafening. Also nearly crashed my van becasue 2 ospreys kicked up a sandstorm next to the highway i was driving on.
Yeah, thought so. I'm fairly sure I recognise the Isle of Grain power station. Ask me to do the same from a land view and I couldn't do it.
Aw shucks, it was nuthin' No seriously, you use these landmarks as an indicator of progress on a boat. So it isn't just a scene, it's useful data. My head is full of junk like this. I've probably got memory archives I don't know about from the coast of NZ and Waiheke Island. I doubt if I'll ever sail there again.
Just been watching a bit of Gravity [2013] on my TV. Meant to watch about 5 minutes to see if it carried across to a smaller screen, and got sucked into 25 before I could tear myself away. Not a patch on the original 3D IMAX experience but still a superb visual and aural experience albeit at a much smaller scale. I can still remember just being awestruck in the cinema. Even the old tight-fisted friend I went with said it was a stonking bargain at £17 in the premier seats.
Im a merchant seaman mate, and i am still impressed that you knew straight away where this shot was ! Also spent a lot of time on the Kiwi coast in the 70's, 80's and a bit in the 90's.
