GPSguru

HI Alain, great to see you here ..............👍

I get on fine with the other 2 dive boats. The divers give me the heads up on what fish have been seen, and I get loads of crab / scallops, in return for fresh mack / Bass. I towed in one of the dive RIBS when his gearbox seized up 5 miles out.

Maybe you missed the subtle pun 🙄😇 ‘REEL flids ‘ Though, lefty multis still come under the retard heading 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yeah, but @Saintly Fish and @Andy135 are a couple of reel flids 🤣🤣🤣🤣

In the UK you will lose contact with the coastguard from the shore based stations in about 10 miles with a 5W handheld. With a 25W fixed VHF and a 3db antenna (a lot are 6db) then you can rely on good comms to the coast guard at 40 -45 miles. However, at anything over 30 miles out, then you are pretty much relying on another vessel responding to your mayday call, or another vessel providing a mayday relay. In the last 2 years I have responded to direct Ch16 mayday calls for, a) an engine fire on a 30ft boat, b) ignorant gits running out of fuel twice at 20 miles out !, c) a fouled prop on a shaft drive, and d) this is the scariest, a chap on his own having a stroke. He made a full recovery, and we often see each other out on the wrecks. Other times I have been called by the CG because they can see me on AIS and assume I am the nearest to respond to give a situation update.

Yes, I saw you coming back onto your mooring in the afternoon and wondered how you had done. IIRC the sea was about 0.8m - 1m, so not very comfortable at all. I assume the boat you are referring to was 'Sea Quest' which is a dive boat out of Teignmouth, they also are heavily involved with the seine boat rowing races and act as a rescue / marshalling boat. I have had cross words on the radio with them in the past, and have made it clear that if they call me on the radio and tell me their intentions, then I will move, if not, then I will made life ferk'in difficult and move under protest. However, often you are best off out of it, as the actual divers are a big risk factor. Your rod joins the 'many' out in the bay ! .......... I have lost 2 in the last 10 years. I assume you were out towards the Bretagne ?

If you weather is like hours, then I reckon its fairly nice in the channel. we have decent weather, but the sea state is not good with a 1.5m onshore swell. so, did you get the double unicorn ?

Great report and some excellent fishing. The best days are always the ones when you are unprepared and just take it as it comes 👍

Miserable bastid, but tis true 🤣

I am fairly sure all the new Brittany ferries that have com into service in the last 12 months or so are hydrogen powered.

Just say’in 😉 At that time the winter species have left or are leaving and the summer species have not arrived in any meaningful numbers. Saying that, I have also had some excellent fishing at that time of the year, but generally it is an all or nothing time. If the skipper is thinking mid channel wrecks then it will be fine.

I wish you all well, but generally, mid to late march can be very challenging fishing.

So do I, but these one piece bearings have raised inner race and quite a thin bearing shell, hence the hollow brass drift. Placing the old shell on top would need to be quite accurate to avoid damage. With this type of bearing a lot of folk freeze the bearing and then heat the drum to 200c. The bearing then just drops straight in, however, I am not a great fan of placing a -10c bearing into a 200c housing ! freezing the bearing and then fitting to the drum at room temp makes it a very easy fit. At some time I will run a good bead of weld around the bottom of the old bearing shell and then turn it in the lathe to create a small flange, which will assist withe the bearing installation.

@Andy135 we need a twat emoji 🙄

I just changed a one piece wheel bearing on the trailer. It said use a press, but a f’off big socket and 3 good tw@ts with a 14lb sledge hammer = job done. I put the new bearing in the freezer for a few hours, then gently tapped it in with a 2lb hammer and a hollow brass drift.

I have had a 3rd full vac, to be followed by a booster in 5 months time. Also had a flu jab and a pneumonia jab. TBF, the consultants nursing team have been really efficient in making sure that I am well protected 👍

I will be SPJ on my winter trips out to the wrecks. Normally I get a couple of doable days a month. Still grounded at the moment until the middle of next week, but then it will be weather watching again 👍

The max wave height is going to be 2m based on those numbers, which is generally every 3rd or 5th wave. If it stays at 10secs then the trip might be Ok, but any less than 10secs and you will be down to displacement or just on the plane. Touch and go really, personally I would give it a miss due to the distance involved.

That actually raises many more questions than answers 😉

Firstly you will need to cut back the gel coat to the original colour as after all this time it will probably be oxidized. Time to get out the polisher and some Farecla G3 or G6.

Going back in time .......... CCR

12, that is way more than I have had in over 50 years of fishing !

That is real decent fishing and a couple of cracking cod ............ 👍 I am still grounded, and using the grounded time to service the trailer, but will start again in November.