Geoff

lol, its expensive but not that bad. Also I won't have the money for another 6 months and can't wait that long to use the boat again

Nope, I am fine I knew they were fresh as I watched the birds corral them as the tide dropped. 

I bet @JDP would be able to inform you of something! 

Hi,
to cheer myself up from my outboard woes I have started to plan a once in a lifetime fishing adventure. After watching big cat reality on Amazon me and my boat mate have been talking about it. I have a little bit of inheritance so we are going to go for it unless we can find something better. 
Big Cat Reality is a 3/7 or 9 day trip on a big cat with a number of smaller tenders aboard, we are looking at the 7 day option. You sail out of Bundaberg Marina in Brisbane to Swains reef where the big boat anchors up and they put the little tenders in the water and you spend the days exploring the reef and fishing off the tenders, pop back for lunch then out again. There is a chef on board and you can fish off the main boat at night. Looks amazing and like nothing I've done before. I've not seen anything similar on offer anywhere else, does anyone know of any? Either in Australia or elsewhere? 

No Pete, not this time. This trip we cannot blame on him. 

was andy out with you ? that could exsplain it

Out of Brixham Saturday for a go at the flatties on the Skerries
Hopefully 🤞

Good going, now hopefully the weather will allow you to enjoy it!!

Excellent! As you've probably figured out, the whole launch/recovery process does get easier with time & experience. Glad you had a successful first outing. The fish will follow I'm sure 👍

Thanks Andy and Mick,
Having successfully completed our Powerboat2 course on Tuesday, Wednesday evening was our first time afloat. The roll over the gunnels worked for boarding and despite a bit of mis communication we managed to get car, trailer and boat off the slip undamaged, each in the desired direction. We only had a short run out as high tide was at dusk so we did about 2hrs just to see how she went. Tide was incoming hard as we made our way out of the estuary at a very genteel pace. Outside we opened up a bit and planed easy enough at 20knot+ with more to come. Not too wobbly when sat fishing which we managed about 40 mins fruitlessly searching for anything. Then all too soon time to get back in and a pub dinner. Looking forward to some more inshore trips and fishing when the weather allows....

Just saw this...


Just FYI

More done today..... Found a reg/rec to put on, so made a temporary bracket for it as the one I want to make requires welding and no gas.....
Reg/rec fitted up and alternator wired in. I have a single phase alternator (2 wires) and a 3 phase reg/rec (3 alternator wires). This is because it will have a 3 phase alternator in the future, so all you do is run 2 wires from the reg/rec to one of the wires from the alternator. The output is wired to the battery. I have left the battery on so I can check the voltage to make sure that the reg/rec doesn't pull the batter down, if it does I will need to add a relay so it is electrically disconnected when the ignition is off. Early indication is that the bike is charging ok.
I also found a brake light switch lurking in the background, so wired that in too.
No pics as forgot my phone, but will get some next time

At it again.. wasting time, waiting for the tide to make.
Only nutter on the beach thus far, similar conditions to yesterday but with a little rain. Cozy pup has found a spot 

Heard ramblings of shore Tope,  this was enough to get the cogs in motion a plan was hatch to conduct this weekends installment of care in the community, at Selsey! Crap tides etc all, meant everything aligned nicely for the venue...
Rush to pack and get the car loaded after a family gathering, couldn't locate wire leader.. balls. Not to worry I thought, what's the chances!?? Beefed up the hook lengths to 60lb, 6/0s with pennel.. that'll do..
Nothing on the first cast with Bluey, over to squid.. hit! Nice hound, low double.. double small squid, subtle bite and slack liner.. in again, cracking fight peeling a decent amount of heavy set drag. possibly would've been a pb, conservative estimate of 15lb but probably bigger. Just want to get her back in quickly. Picture attached. 
Next cast, a single squid.. rod slams over, drag screams out, turned the fish picked up a little slack the fish turns again and after a few heavy pulls it happens. Called bitten off and that exactly what it was. Lost a Tope.
New hook length tied, again 6/0s.. squid and soon after another hound in, another low double.. last cast as my new puppy that was out for his first fishy outing was starting to pine for his bed, this point my buddy Nick has reeled in and started packing up having blanked.. we're on the top of the tide, my rod starts to pull down and it just keeps going.. clearly another Tope yet this one immediately felt bigger, hoped I'd managed to lip hook it but not to be though I had it on longer than the first. With a heavy drag set, this this went off like a train and was rapid, heavy and very quick. Eased more drag on and eventually it went ping but this fish was relentless,  this didn't pause it just kept going. Gutted, never hooked into anything like that before.
Tomorrow is another day, with some tweaks I might get back on that beach tomorrow for another go. 
Distance seemed to be key, I was fishing further out than others on the beach and while they all seemed to be blanking, I was virtually fish after fish. Proper little session.

yep, minimalist is about right, about 12 inches......
Had mr bass been smaller he probably wouldn't have made it..... But the scrap he put up, he earnt his freedom
 

So Tues, random message from a mate saying ring me, he was out in his boat and his mate couldn't make day 2, did I want to go? Well hell yeah.
So met up this morning, loaded my gear into back of van and set off for Brancaster Staithe. We arrived with no issues and set about get the boat in the water. This boat is a south african dive boat, very low freeboard and I'm thinking what have I done?
The boat performed excellently despite it's size and soon got used to it. My mate yesterday had had 10 runs, 6 of which resulted in tope to the boat. So lots of hope for this trip. After over 2 hours run less, my rod went off on a flyer. Now I've had my fair share of tope, and this was putting up a hell of a battle.....

Personal best bass landed. That was a shock, but a welcome one. Slipped him back to fight another day. Guestimated 8lb.
After a bit, we moved, and eventually my rod went again, 30lb tope...

That, and a steady stream of mackerel made for a really good day. The wind picked up and we headed for cover and that was that. Awesome day out, first time on a small boat, pb bass and about a stone of mack for the freezer, awesome......

Love it 🤣👍

Not my boat but one I fish from. One of the guys I fish with in his bigger boat quite regularly bought this for his kids. This is the 13yr old running in the engine. We did have a 10km race up the coast in chop at full noise and I was surprised that my 15ft centre console managed to out perform them.  
I bought a second hand engine off his kids last boat, should I be worried!!!!!!…..makes sense why there was so much salt under the cowling.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

🤣🤣🤣. Geoff.

Back to Landlocked Lincolnshire today. The only wet day we had was on Tues, the day that we decamped (and went to annoy my SIL at Lee Mill). we enjoyed the break and were very pleased with the camping performance of the camper. I see that Steve has listed a brief resume of his "not a boat" project, and may do another on my van conversion with a few pics. Geoff. 🙂

Well, we dodged the question of jam/cream/one or two halves at a time - it was flat whites and lemon & blueberry cake for Joyce and I this morning, while @Geoff went for a pot of tea with carrot cake.
Great to catch up with you both - hope the weather is kind for the rest of your stay in Devon 🤞. Hopefully we can find an opportunity to get together again next summer at a potential OO boat meet.

Ta 👍
One thing this bike lacks is space. Reckon, when it comes to doing the boats, they will be much tidier as have plenty of space. Will draw up a proper wiring diagram then tho, this one I've done without a diagram, sorta made it up as we went, but done quite a few bikes over the years 😉