Leaderboard

Tripped the anchor with alderney ring set up, pulled anchor in midship over the gunnal on chanbilly into rhino bucket on deck. Unclip the bouy and left anchor in the bucket on deck just incase but didn't put new cable ties on. So heading in chatting to Ady explaining we nip pass the end of Hengistbury head groyne about 50ft away but I don't see the point because if anything goes wrong it's then time critical so passed about quarter mile off then within couple of minutes the boat went hard to port or starboard, correcting the steering but not responding as I was expecting. 1st thought was I'd run over pot buff or line and it was around the leg/props and pulling us back into neutral and ady went to see if we had caught something as i lifted leg up, no all clear he said Hmmmm I went from lock to lock on the wheel and ask ady is it moving? Only a little he said we swapped positions and I called are you moving the wheel? yes ady replied! Straight back into the wheelhouse to share the news we've lost steering and to grab cable ties to retrip the anchor. Anchor out boat save called coastguard at 17.27 explained situation and they said they'd put Pan pan couple of times with 10mins intervals and be back in touch. I did say only other vessels in sight were sailing boats, so I didn't hold out much hope. A young lad who works on mudeford ferry came out in his 5m rib and offer a tow but I explained we're 2.5ton 27ft and the boat suffers from the bow, wheelhouse catching the wind so I would prefer to wait for the lifeboat he also agreed. At this time sun was setting and all 3 of us were wondering why the lifeboat hadn't been tasked already (time approx 19.00) Coastguard kept asking if we could arrange a commercial tow but I explained that if I could it would be well into darkness which isn't ideal. 8pm after speaking to Coastguard again they tasked mudeford lifeboat which promptly arrived took us under tow and back to my mooring up the river, which we arrived at 22.00. Today I've been on Chanbilly and found bracket holding power steering has broken on the weld so fingers crossed 🤞 it's a very easy fix

So just to confirm for the benefit of everyone, if a pan pan is called the coastguard will assume you are safe and request you attempt to find a friendly or commercial tow. In the event that the cg see you cannot secure a tow they may elevate the call to a mayday and task the lifeboat, the clue is in their name, they are there to protect life when in danger which is exactly what happened here. Well done bob on managing your situation as you did, text book actions.

Well where do I start? It all finished with the lifeboat! And a happy ending A nice chap called Adrian from the club met at mine 7.30am off to Chanbilly we went, duly plodded down river through the harbour and out over the bar. Fishing commenced drifting near christchurch ledge approx 1 mile of but no birds working. Very quiet in had 1 undersized bass but gave a very spirited fight as if it was a descent fish. Ady had a mackerel and I a garfish not alot happening so off to sewer bouys to try for Ady tea and fresh bait he managed 2 little mackerel not tea sized though off into livebait well (there lucky day released at the end of the day) We anchored up near the bouys and stayed there all day, frozen mackerel was working well. We had a few cracking runs but didn't connect 😕 We probably caught approx 6 thornbacks each all descent size and returned. About 5pm packed up as plenty of depth to go over the bar and still flooding rods tucked away and wind had picked up a little. TBC

Bob the timings are wild, glad your safe.

I’m told it never goes to plan when I’m on board! Well it did yesterday! We got the 7.30 bridge with perfect conditions although Jerrys forecast was showing it would be windy before midday so we stayed in Swanage bay to try for some rays. The tide was rising quite hard and not much was showing. As it slackened off a couple of strap conger and LSD, then a few rattles and a decent bream came up on a large hook. We changed down and caught a few bream for the table. The wind was now much less than expected so at slack water we ventured out slightly further to a bank in the hope of rays. The tide was now ebbing strongly and Jerry was first with a blonde. A hectic half hour followed with two more blondes and a tope each. My shoulder is aching today! It then went quiet and with a chop starting to pick up we decided to up anchor but the anchor had other ideas! It had set in very hard in the tide and would not trip despite some motoring around. After a battle it eventually came up and we headed back to the swash to try for some plaice. One for Jerry but nothing else showing so we called it a day. We spotted a kayaker really struggling trying to get past the chain ferry in the strong ebb so we threw him a line….he was mightily relieved and with some expert boat handling from captain we towed him back into the harbour…..catch and release I think they call it! Jerry has done so well with the cucumbers in his greenhouse this year that he’s having to find other uses for them and it turns out they make very good rig tidiers! thank you skipper!

Thanks Terry, good to hear you out there with the PBSBAC presence filling the airwaves.

So glad you remembered how fishing goes, Martin. 😉 A lovely autumn day, some fish playing ball and good company, what more could you want, apart from more and bigger fish! If I may (well, I'm going to), I'll attach my record to yours. My friend Pete and I headed out about 08.30 and it was bloody tight getting under the town bridge. Going through the harbour with a flat sea no other boats about got me thinking what a shame it is not October. I decided to use the first of the ebbing tide trying for plaice and this proved to be a good decision with a good stamp of fish interspersed with other varieties making their presence felt. We had quite a few small to medium sized bream, sometimes two at a time, Pete got a couple of small bass, a lone dab showed up, something I haven't seen (or eaten, very sweet) for a long time, a thornback ray to me on the plaice gear and, as I reeled in the last cast, a BIG mackerel. What a good start apart from there being not a single squid around. At one point, Alun turned up and neither of us saw where he came from, suddenly he is just there sitting off our bow with about five rods out for squid, Ninja fisherman! And no, he didn't get any either. Now, off to the edge of the Ledge to try for bass which we ticked off, fish around the 3 - 4lb mark, perfect. We also had a lot of wrasse including one very large specimen which put up a bit of a scrap. Then, it all just suddenly stopped so, we decided to fish our way back to Poole, drowning the remaining worms. We did stop at Hengitsbury to see if there were any more mackerel about but, no luck. I did have something plucking at my feathers but not hooking up, I did convince myself that this was probably a squid, not getting it's tentacles caught on the small single hooks. Nothing else interrupted our peace on the saunter back to base. With an 04.30 start, the drive home after the boat washdown seemed to go on much longer than necessary. Looking forward to the next window, it's good, as Martin said, to be retired! Terry.

What a day, after all the wind it was so nice to get out. Christchurch has a remarked channel today, but again the wind looks heavy for another week. it was so nice to be on the radio with so many PBSBAC members listening in on channel 6 and having a brief check of who is doing what. Great club chat and some fish, what more can you ask for. Thanks to Martin for the invite and thanks to everyone out there today contributing, loved it. I managed a Ray yippee.

As you say Rob what goes on tour stays on tour, all i can say is that Rob S definately was limping before the days fishing!