19. July 2012 · 3 comments · Categories: Posts

Yes, their dry spell has officially ended at 5am this morning.

I heard the noise outside and barked them a warning, but they just told me to be quiet and tried to go back to sleep.  Then the female realised she left her rod out last night and jumped up to look out the porthole and sure enough their was a fish on.

The man human raced off to be the first one to reel in a fish…actually two mackeral were attatched!

Three more were caught in quick succession and I had a wonderful time barking in delight and waking up all the neighbours moored near us.

 

The female human gave me lots of sushi to munch on.

I am starting to get the hang of doing this video thing and started attaching my ‘Quinney Quinnster’ productions to my old posts, so have a look back and you might find something new.

Here’s one that got missed:

Keep smiling

 

16. July 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Posts

Dartmouth is so touristy!  It was sunny yesterday and you could not move through town, but today it started with rain, so the town was DEAD. 

The sun was a welcome change yesterday.  Here is a little video of the harbour from the boat.

 

We all went for a lovely walk along the harbour and up to the point where Dartmouth Castle is situated.

 

Here is the gun turret.

 

 

Coming back through town it seemed everyone was engaged in at least one of the two great British  coastal sporting events.  I do not know why they don’t include them in the Olympics.  They include sitting on a bench and eating fish and chips or catching crabs. 

The crabs thing suprises me the most.  Whole families purchase buckets, bait and nets to spend the day catching crabs only too……let them all go at the end!  At least with the fish and chips ‘thing’ you get to eat something in the end.

All this walking around and contemplating the behaviour of holidaying Brits is exhausting.

The veiw from the boat is pretty at night.

Rain never stops play with these two even today.

They have too much energy.  Too bad they have not caught any fish for us yet!!

 

16. July 2012 · Comments Off on 2012/07/16 Has any one seen my paddle? · Categories: Posts

Well I have it good!

Strong south westerly winds and driving rain means…..

long walks with the dog!

 

They may be interested in getting on to new ports of call but I like nothing better then when they are STUCK somewhere.

We all took the dingy across the river to Kingswear because they ran out of propane.  No one has had any yet, and you should have heard the curses this morning when they could not make a morning coffee.  The Marina across the river had some, so off we went and I got to have a long walk.

 

We discovered lots of great things.

The first was the best boat house in the world!

And got a great veiw of Dartmouth Castle at the entrance of the river.

And found a mini castle hidden in a cove.

They looked into cheaper places to moor or anchor up the boat, but the harbour master charges any vessel our length £10.10 a night.  We may move up the river, but at the moment we are on a floating pontoon just off the town centre for an additional £10.10 a night,

It is a bit expensive, but close to the library, shops and best of all ‘The Oldest Pub in Dartmouth’ with cheap beer and free WiFi.  They also give out free dog biscuits.

Looks like it will be Friday before the weather improves.

That means more long walks maybe to the Castle tomorrow….and probably an anchorage up the river.

 

16. July 2012 · Comments Off on Video of us leaving port · Categories: Posts · Tags:

16. July 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Posts

So as not to let you all get bored I pushed the humans into getting a move on.

The forecast was for strong south westerly winds, easing, and turning to north westerly winds later.  What does ‘later’ really mean?  Whenever I see that on a forecast it never materializes.

Well the human units decided it was best to try and get some distance covered if the forecast was favourable.  

 

The first step was to get off the pontoon we were on.  They had swallowed their pride and asked the Marina if they would be kind enough to help with one of their boats to push the stern away from the power boat parked at our side.  Seven thirty am and a soul guy shows up with a fender.  Luckily another mate Chris also showed up and between them all they managed to get my boat off the pontoon and on the way to Dartmouth.

 

Dartmouth is an overnight trip so you think they would be all prepared right….wrong. 

It did start ok.  The winds were strong and blowing in the direction we wanted to travel, so they double reefed (reduced) the sails and tacked (back and forth either side of the wind).  Making great speeds back and forth does not really account for great speeds in the direction you want to go.  We finally made it out of the Solent, via the needles, and just after two pm. 

 

They had been doing fine up to now, but you know that just could not last.  With wind against tide the strong winds whipped up the sea.  With the Isle of Wright no longer offering protection the waves reared up and tossed the boat about.  I looked out and several boats turned back at this point to seek shelter….this should have been a sign.

 

It was not long before I was the only one left in the cockpit.  Where were the humans?  One was hanging over one side, while the other, was hanging over the other.  What a waste of good food.  I never get sea sick.  But I will give them credit, they persevered and pushed on.  They gave each other one hour rests on the sea berth while the other helmed.  I kept the helms man company and cheered him on.    One hour breaks lengthened to 2 hour and it started to get dark, cold and very very wet.  That is when I decided the individual in the sea berth resting needed my support more.

 

Nine am and Dartmouth was in view.  The human’s grand plan of saving money anchoring was thrown out the window, with any attempts to eat or drink for the last 19 hours.  They found a lovely spot on a floating pontoon and easily set themselves down with the tide helping them stop.  No chance for them to rest as the hot water return hose on the water heater had come off in the rough weather.  Tired or not, they needed to get the fresh water system up and running.  I made their job easier by constantly whining that I wanted to go for a walk.

 

Don’t worry I got my way as soon as they finished and got the dingy down.  I got them wrapped around my finger.  Dartmouth is lovely with all the touristy stuff people want and lots and lots of rubbish bins to wee on.  The whistle of the steam train is fun and the high hills surrounding us block out the worst of the wind.  Going to get a bit more rest early tonight as the humans kept waking me up when they changed shifts.