Saturday, fishing trip, long overdue.
So you do all the proper safety stuff, look up the tides, look up the weather. BBC weather says showers, winds <10 knots. Should have known better, of course they missed the hurricane didnt they!
So travel 75 miles to Bradwell.
Amazingly Rodolfo starts on the button, and using the on board battery, pretty good since she's been sat idle since August. Piles of smoke though, till she warms up....
Right off we go, no sign of showers, in fact the sky is clear blue and no sign of wind.
Out into the estuary, so its a bit choppy but nothing alarming. zoom about a bit looking for fish with the fish finder. Find a likely spot in the middle of nowhere and drop anchor.
Right so this is fun, nearest boat is about 1 mile away.
Put out lines and sit on side of boat to have a drink. Notice that nearest boat is now < 1 mile away, but we are not going anywhere we are anchored....
Now, the thing about wind is that Wind = Waves. Waves = "A rated" theme park ride in boat.
By now the wind is getting up and the nearest boat is a few hundred yards away. Its got a bit topsy turvy so we put on the life jackets in case we fall in....
Although the fishfinder shows loads of fish, they dont seem very interested in being caught today! Nesarest boat is about 100 feet away.
How is it that in an area of water appromimating 10 sq miles the only two boats in plain sight are drifting towards each other? You'd think that the tide and winds would affect both boats the same, but clearly they dont. We are still anchored, so I guess we had better pull anchor and move.
Well while trying to do that, the other boat drifts past us at about 3 knotts, pretty slow and we have to push it away to avoid a collision. Because they were all fishing off the back they were not looking out forwards, their captain was in the cabin with a cuppa!
So one near miss above water and several hundred below water.
By now the winds have got up and its about a F5, thats white horses on the waves and quite unpleasant. Kevin has gone green so we head for cover behind the power station cooling intakes, a sort of super tanker sized structure in the middle of the estuary....
A little shelter here but after another 30 mins and still no fish we've both had enough and head in. Amazingly as we enter the harbour the wind drops to almost zero.....
Well even with the wind it could have been a summers day, not bad for mid October....
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Sounds like a good day out. I suspect I'd have gone pretty green too. On the other hand if you'd actually caught and gutted a fish, I'd have gone completely and irreversibly green. I love the idea of being somewhere peaceful where the nearest people are more than a mile away.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite amazing when you are the only boat out there, like just after the early morning fog lifts, miles from anyone/anywhere and everything still a bit fuzzy.
ReplyDeleteBut, when the waves get bigger than your boat, you should already be back in port...