Graham Nash

10.00 leave Rockley sounds good to me too :-)

If anything happens to prevent me going on the first dates I would be interested but those first dates are inscribed in my diary.

it looks prehistoric!

Why I Have Dogs And Not a Wife .... 1. The later you are, the more excited your dogs are to see you. 2. Dogs don't notice if you call them by another dog's name. 3. Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor. 4. A dog's parents never visit. 5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across. 6. You never have to wait for a dog; they're ready to go 24 hours a day. 7. Dogs find you amusing when you're drunk.. 8. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing. 9. A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, "If I died, would you get another dog?" 10. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away. 11. A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you wierd. 12. If a dog smells another dog on you, they don't get mad. They just think it's interesting. 13. Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck. And last, but not least: 14. If a dog leaves, it won't take half of your stuff. To test this theory: Lock your wife and your dog in the garage for an hour. Then open it and see who's happy to see you.

I have a mad busy week next week, otherwise I would have loved to Adam.

To be honest Alun, we will probably just park over Christchurch Ledge or something and open a couple of cans of Pepsi Max and enjoy being out. I dont catch many fish during the good times so I dont expect to catch anything when the fishing is poor.

Shhhhhhhh but the weather is looking ok for Saturday so I'm intending on popping out for a bit of bait drowning. I headed West last week (off St Alband) and although it was lovely to be out the fish had obviously gone elsewhere, so I was thinking of heading East next time. Anyone else out and if so where are you thinking of trying?

No ... the lazy line does not go through the rollers, and neither does the anchor line (when using the lazy line). The lazy line gets attached to the bow at the trailer hitch point and the anchor gets lowered over the side. But i dont seem able to get to grips with the lazy line method so My anchor line goes through my bow roller which gives me the problem with my roller arrangement.

I normally do the same Paul but as i mentioned in the opening post my anchor rope invariably gets hooked up on my roller arrangement on the bow meaning my crew hanging out of the hatch trying to untrap it. Its not impossible, its just a bit of a hag!

That is exactly what happens to me Rob I WILL work it out and will probably try it a couple of times in shallower water to see if we can master it before trying it in anger out there in the deeper water. Dave I will see what Mike has to say, and I am going to organise an RNLI safety check very soon .... if i am still having problems I will give you a shout and take you up on your offer. Many thanks all. Graham.

Thank you Mike. That sounds something like i do already but the anchor rope gets stuck in the roller arrangement from the initial "lift". When i try it with the lazy line i get in all sorts of mess. I will check out what Mike (BassCodandwhateverelseicancatch) has to offer and see how i get on. I really must get one of these RNLI safety checks too.

I have your number Mike, I will call you one evening and pop over and see how it is done and what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.

That sounds about the same as my "problem" Greg. I thought the lazy line would be a perfect solution but i get in sich a mess every time i try it!

I have used the Alderney retreaval system since being shown by Tony & Dave at last years training day and have had good success with it apart from ..... the rope occasionally getting trapped in the front roller arrangement meaning having to hang out of the front hatch to free it. I read up on a "lazy line", which i beleive to be a line attached to the mooring point on the front of the boat which reaches back to the cabin. I then drop the anchor off the side and allow it to settle before attaching it (via a loop tied in my anchor rope) to a carabina on the end of the lazy line. Chuch that over the side and hey presto it should all swing round to face into the tide and everything should be good. To retreave I just drive as normal towards(ish) the anchor buoy, pick up the anchor line and retreave as normal. All sounds ok, but it never works that way for me! No matter how strong the tide, my lazy line never seems to swing me into the tide and gets all loose and knotted around the anchor line? To those of you that use this method .... help, what am i doing wrong from the description above?

you're half way there already

Well done Dave .... it looks like you might now be our resident "mechanical expert" I wouldn't even know where top start on a job like that!

loved it Martin .... the gps and sonar were great, the in hull transducer worked a treat. The radar ..... i think i need more practice .... It shows up boats and channel markers great but i was disappointed with the definition of pot buoys etc. I adjusted it to minimum distance and increased it to 78% gain and i could see marker buoys, buy i also saw seagulls flying at low level, which in very poor visibility would have put the fear of God into me (seeing unknown obstructions moving around in front of me)! As I said I think i need more practice but it was good.

Nothing at all today mate but was great to be out again on such a beautiful day. I was really just out to play with my new electronics but was amazed that you were completely invisible to my radar !!! Maybe you need to carry a radar reflector

he stood up almost the whole day PJ .... he will love the seat now :-)

can i join you to Alderney now Adam

yes thanks Martin .... I have it now (but am sure i will forget by the time i want to try it again :-))

i think its beginning to look like a propper fishing boat now so i thought i should treat her to a new cover ..... hopefully the next pictures will be of fishing trips and fish!

Having had her for a season there were a few things we knew that were needed to make her better so first of all we gave her a well needed clean. next we realised we needed to reduce the likelyhood of some scumbag emptying my fuel tanks again so we built a lockable seating arrangement in the hope that "out of sight would be out of mind", this will also give my dog somewhere to sit rather than having to stand the whole journey when we are out :=) Radar arch and new electronics came next