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| Picture stolen from Matts blog |
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Solo Session
The wind is finally back! That was one of the longest windless stretches I've seen in a while.
Put the dive gear away for a couple days. Fun day in the water today though. Most of the spots were surprisingly empty. All the forecast were calling for a swell of flat to a foot and wind 4/5 . You don't always have to believe the reports, some of the best days are when the forecast looks really bad. People don't go, and if you know where to look you can have it all to yourself
Thursday, June 16, 2011
SS Edirne Alderney.
There have been numerous wrecks on the islets of Alderney; fierce tides reaching 6-7 knots on springs and a lack of landmarks account for many wrecks in the area. The most famous include SS Stella wrecked in 1899. The largest wreck was the 8000 tonne water tanker Constantia S.
It was believed for centuries that the loss of HMS Victory in 1744 was attributable to wrecking on the Casquets, the light keeper of Alderney even being court marshalled for failure to keep the light on at the time of the ship's loss. However, when the wreck of that ship was found in 2008 by Odyssey Marine Exploration, it was over 60 nautical miles (110 km) from the Casquets. That's another story all of it's own.
Les Casquets or The Casquets are a group of rocks 13 km northwest of Alderney and are part of an underwater sandstone ridge. Other parts which emerge above the water are the islets of Burhou and Ortac.
The weather of late has been a mixed bag, as predicted in earlier posts. Despite some record breaking high pressures reaching us from the Atlantic there have still been clouds and winds keeping the temperatures down and the sea state up. The long range forecast promises some settling, with less cloud giving us only an occasional scattered shower for the end of June. Though the start of June looks likely to be influenced more by the North Sea than the Atlantic and so brisk north easterly winds that are notorious for staying put, seem possible. Though with the longest days the chances of some fine weather must surely be in our favour.
Due to a last minute cancellation of our annual weekends dive trip to Alderney to dive the Stella and Erdine ( weather blowing up on Sunday 6/7 Southerly), we managed to secure a one day trip to Alderney on board Margaret K, skippered by Richard Keen.
We met up on the fisherman's quayside at 8.30am for loading and full run down of the days activities. The plan was to dive the Erdine and then pull into Alderney for a few beers and a bite to eat. We left the port at about 9am in a F3 wind with sunny skies. The skipper navigated us out of the St Peter Port harbour before hitting the throttle and had us punching out towards the Channel at 10 knots with tide on the nose all the way. Everyone had settled into their seats in the wheelhouse and within minutes the banters had already started. After about 90mins of steaming, we reached the infamous Swinge and a few nasty overfalls. This narrow and also dangerous channel, between Alderney and the uninhabited islets of Burhou and Ortach, is confined by numerous rocks and reefs off either coast, it is rendered very dangerous in stormy weather by conflicting currents. Through this difficult channel the scattered remnants of past ship wrecks can be seen in the form of twisted steel and the odd ships boiler high and dry on the rocks.
Our destination was a spot half mile east of Burhou, the resting spot of the Turkish steamer Edirne, another victim of fog. In 1950, she was equipped with much more modern navigation equipment than past wrecks I've dived on. The vessel relatively new at the time, was on route from Tekirdag in Turkey to Elsinore in Denmark with a cargo of 4,500 tons of cattle feed. It was a foggy January day that Edirne went aground on a reef near Burhou. About 50 people on board, including the 27 year old skipper and a dog, were rescued by the St Peter Port lifeboat, Queen Victoria
Later the Trinity House Lighthouse tender Burhou made an attempt to tow the badly damaged vessel off the reef. Not surprisingly the Edirne was too large and heavy for the little tender and a French tug was called to assist. However, just as they started the operation, the Edirne turned over and sank, some two miles north west off Alderney lighthouse.
After a bumpy morning on the boat, the boys and I were fairly keen to get in to the water.
Keenie piloted the boat and found the wreck first time. Paul and I dropped the shot bang on the wreck. Alan and Paul dropped in to tie it on. The shot was in and the adrenalin was pumping. Jon and myself kitted up for our turn as Keenie brought us back to the shot. It was all very slick we looked like pro's.
Once in the water, the swell made it uncomfortable to remain for any length of time on the surface. Quickly we headed down the shot line and the deeper we descended the darker it became, making a torch an absolute necessity. The wreckage soon loomed out of the darkness, lit up by the light of the torch beams at a depth of 55 metres. Whilst conditions were dark, the water on the wreck site was surprisingly clear and free of sediment with several metres visibility. I could see the strobes at the bottom of the shot line that Paul and Alan had left pinging away which was a sure indication I was getting close to the target. The wreck itself is breaking up due to its location and the large loading/cargo mast that once stood proud the last time I dived her, has now collapsed onto the deck and making a nice home for the resident conger population. A gentle current swept across the wreckage and the surrounding seabed quickly sweeping away any sediment stirred up from the two rotovaters that went down before me. It looked like I had landed mid ships, swimming over what looked like the remains of an old shower block I couldn't stop thinking of who the last person was who had a shower, before she hit the reef and sank. Dropping down into one of the ships many dark corners and swimming inside a small room, I came across broken pottery, 3 or 4 basins electrical, plumbing fitting and bottles scattered over the floor. This looked like I had come across the ships kitchen. After 20 minutes, dive computers started to bleep warnings, reminding us that it was time to head back to the strobes and surface above. On completing our deco stops and surfacing, we looked around for the boat, the choppy waves betraying the fact that the wind had increased during the course of the dive. Once safely back on board, we de-kitted and headed back to Braye harbour and a well deserved beer or two in the Divers Inn. Pubs are Alderney's best asset. This is all the locals seem to do, so if you ever go there, you must do the same. DRINK!! All pubs in Alderney are good, some are just better than others, 16 pubs in about 1 sq mile makes for alot of drinking and socialising!!! By the time we had visited 6 watering holes and had a bite to eat at the local Thai restaurant, it was 8.30 pm and time for the 2 hour boat trip back home. Endeth a great day. One last thing, to finish the day off was a cracking sunset we had on the way home with Les Casquets and the storm front that was coming in from the west for Sunday, making for a great photo. (alas the bloody battery was flat on the camera!).
 |
| Casquets |
Les Casquets or The Casquets are a group of rocks 13 km northwest of Alderney and are part of an underwater sandstone ridge. Other parts which emerge above the water are the islets of Burhou and Ortac.
The weather of late has been a mixed bag, as predicted in earlier posts. Despite some record breaking high pressures reaching us from the Atlantic there have still been clouds and winds keeping the temperatures down and the sea state up. The long range forecast promises some settling, with less cloud giving us only an occasional scattered shower for the end of June. Though the start of June looks likely to be influenced more by the North Sea than the Atlantic and so brisk north easterly winds that are notorious for staying put, seem possible. Though with the longest days the chances of some fine weather must surely be in our favour.
 |
| Burhou |
We met up on the fisherman's quayside at 8.30am for loading and full run down of the days activities. The plan was to dive the Erdine and then pull into Alderney for a few beers and a bite to eat. We left the port at about 9am in a F3 wind with sunny skies. The skipper navigated us out of the St Peter Port harbour before hitting the throttle and had us punching out towards the Channel at 10 knots with tide on the nose all the way. Everyone had settled into their seats in the wheelhouse and within minutes the banters had already started. After about 90mins of steaming, we reached the infamous Swinge and a few nasty overfalls. This narrow and also dangerous channel, between Alderney and the uninhabited islets of Burhou and Ortach, is confined by numerous rocks and reefs off either coast, it is rendered very dangerous in stormy weather by conflicting currents. Through this difficult channel the scattered remnants of past ship wrecks can be seen in the form of twisted steel and the odd ships boiler high and dry on the rocks.
Our destination was a spot half mile east of Burhou, the resting spot of the Turkish steamer Edirne, another victim of fog. In 1950, she was equipped with much more modern navigation equipment than past wrecks I've dived on. The vessel relatively new at the time, was on route from Tekirdag in Turkey to Elsinore in Denmark with a cargo of 4,500 tons of cattle feed. It was a foggy January day that Edirne went aground on a reef near Burhou. About 50 people on board, including the 27 year old skipper and a dog, were rescued by the St Peter Port lifeboat, Queen Victoria
Later the Trinity House Lighthouse tender Burhou made an attempt to tow the badly damaged vessel off the reef. Not surprisingly the Edirne was too large and heavy for the little tender and a French tug was called to assist. However, just as they started the operation, the Edirne turned over and sank, some two miles north west off Alderney lighthouse.
 |
| Cottage and hut on Burhou. The cottage was built by General Le Messurier ( The Governor ) as a shelter for fishermen and shipwrecked mariners and this would have been about the year 1820. It fell into decay but was later repaired and in 1900 a French couple lived there for a year. Various people slept there until it was destroyed either during or perhaps just after the German occupation of the Channel Islands in the second world war. |
Keenie piloted the boat and found the wreck first time. Paul and I dropped the shot bang on the wreck. Alan and Paul dropped in to tie it on. The shot was in and the adrenalin was pumping. Jon and myself kitted up for our turn as Keenie brought us back to the shot. It was all very slick we looked like pro's.
Once in the water, the swell made it uncomfortable to remain for any length of time on the surface. Quickly we headed down the shot line and the deeper we descended the darker it became, making a torch an absolute necessity. The wreckage soon loomed out of the darkness, lit up by the light of the torch beams at a depth of 55 metres. Whilst conditions were dark, the water on the wreck site was surprisingly clear and free of sediment with several metres visibility. I could see the strobes at the bottom of the shot line that Paul and Alan had left pinging away which was a sure indication I was getting close to the target. The wreck itself is breaking up due to its location and the large loading/cargo mast that once stood proud the last time I dived her, has now collapsed onto the deck and making a nice home for the resident conger population. A gentle current swept across the wreckage and the surrounding seabed quickly sweeping away any sediment stirred up from the two rotovaters that went down before me. It looked like I had landed mid ships, swimming over what looked like the remains of an old shower block I couldn't stop thinking of who the last person was who had a shower, before she hit the reef and sank. Dropping down into one of the ships many dark corners and swimming inside a small room, I came across broken pottery, 3 or 4 basins electrical, plumbing fitting and bottles scattered over the floor. This looked like I had come across the ships kitchen. After 20 minutes, dive computers started to bleep warnings, reminding us that it was time to head back to the strobes and surface above. On completing our deco stops and surfacing, we looked around for the boat, the choppy waves betraying the fact that the wind had increased during the course of the dive. Once safely back on board, we de-kitted and headed back to Braye harbour and a well deserved beer or two in the Divers Inn. Pubs are Alderney's best asset. This is all the locals seem to do, so if you ever go there, you must do the same. DRINK!! All pubs in Alderney are good, some are just better than others, 16 pubs in about 1 sq mile makes for alot of drinking and socialising!!! By the time we had visited 6 watering holes and had a bite to eat at the local Thai restaurant, it was 8.30 pm and time for the 2 hour boat trip back home. Endeth a great day. One last thing, to finish the day off was a cracking sunset we had on the way home with Les Casquets and the storm front that was coming in from the west for Sunday, making for a great photo. (alas the bloody battery was flat on the camera!). |
| Deco Stages |
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| Keenie on the mark |
Yet another big un.. Duchess here weighed in at 13.5 pounder
June 2011 - THE HEAVY WEIGHTS MOVE IN
West is best...............
A late afternoon session on the west coast produced a hectic time with some nice size Turbot. It all kicked off with Paul catching a nice 13.5lbs and 8.5lbs Tub.
Not to be out done I came up with the goods and had a 9lbs followed by 6.5lbs on my second dive.
.
West is best...............
Not to be out done I came up with the goods and had a 9lbs followed by 6.5lbs on my second dive.
.
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| Yes the big Tubs finally arrived and have taken up residence Can’t remember a season that has promised so much and delivered so little – so far that is |
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| Well if you thought it was all over out West you would be wrong. |
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
"Time to jump ship"
Well it's been tough keeping up with these weekly reports, but here goes...
A day fishing is not always about catching fish. My last two outings are a testament to that. It's been and up and down year for me on Fortius. We started the year with fantastic flattie action around Sark and then it started to dry up for me (unless your name is golden balls Tuc). Just couldn't produce a fish to save my life, to the amusement of the captain. That was very frustrating, but I guess you can't hit em every time.
I’m not addicted, I’m obsessed. Very, very obsessed. It’s my guess that the same parts of the brain are involved; in my brain and the brains of thousands of people like me, the “go fishing” voice is the loudest and sits at the head of the table, but still listens when it's told to shut up. My point is that the parts of my brain that are telling me to go fishing all the time are still answerable to those parts that tell me I really should go to work instead. But the fishing voice is really, really loud. And persistent.One of the most obvious signs of addiction is withdrawal. So as I haven't caught many fish of late it was time to change tactics...........
Some times, you can go to fishing Mecca and have a mediocre or even poor trip. This is especially true of my trip out on Wednesday to a spot that had been getting good reports of some nice bass being caught the day before from Miss Connie. Now, Miss Connie is owned by another friend called Phil, So we don't get confused between Phil and myself well refer to him by his nick name (Phylis).
Sunday night Tuc sends a Txt out. "Will dangle a worm at 08.50 for 9". He had so many takers the next day we thought it would be a good idea to split the gang up into two boats and make a competition out of it.
Captains Tucs team (Fortius)
Headed out to same area as we'd been fishing for a couple weeks, as we put lines in it was game on. First drop I hook a fish off the bottom. 3lbs bass, and as I am unhooking it Phylis hooks up with his first. And there it started, there were fish everywhere.
We looked across to Fortius all we had in recognision for our efforts was a slngle raised index finger and a load of verbal abuse (poor losers, shame on you boys). We were going through a slack so once the tide got going it really looked like it was going to turned on. It wasn't long before bass were coming over the rail.
Fortius : 2x Bass
Miss Connie : 10 x bass
The rest of the morning saw Phylis skilfully dodging the other boats and putting us over fish after fish. In all the excitement I didn't take any photos, The boys and girls on Captain Tuc's team looked a bit left out of the fish wars, so I put down the rod and picked up the camera, which is a hard thing to do when the fishing is this good. I sent Jen a text along with a photo of a big un'.
As predicted, when the catch gets low, anger rises, the sense of injustice grows, the irritation at fellow fisherman increases...
The text and the photo we received back, well, lets leave it at that. Its to X-rated for this blog. Phylis winkled out another one of about 3lb or so. This was turning into a really good day now. Team Connie really out fished Fortius with a 20 to 5 fish score, poor show lads. As the tide flooded we moved onto some really nice ground, and fate was on our side again as there were fish there too and the tide and wind direction was perfect. We thought we would try one last drift and then head home. Reeling up my line for the last time. BINGO, a greedy big Tub takes hold of my eel and bends my Diawa Kenzaki Megatub Destroyer rod in two. "Oh yes, into another one!!" And was he into one? Oh yeah happy days. So after about 25 bass and one 8lb 4oz tub between the two boats we called it a morning and headed back to the harbour for a much deserved bacon roll, coffee and a chat.
A day fishing is not always about catching fish. My last two outings are a testament to that. It's been and up and down year for me on Fortius. We started the year with fantastic flattie action around Sark and then it started to dry up for me (unless your name is golden balls Tuc). Just couldn't produce a fish to save my life, to the amusement of the captain. That was very frustrating, but I guess you can't hit em every time.
I’m not addicted, I’m obsessed. Very, very obsessed. It’s my guess that the same parts of the brain are involved; in my brain and the brains of thousands of people like me, the “go fishing” voice is the loudest and sits at the head of the table, but still listens when it's told to shut up. My point is that the parts of my brain that are telling me to go fishing all the time are still answerable to those parts that tell me I really should go to work instead. But the fishing voice is really, really loud. And persistent.One of the most obvious signs of addiction is withdrawal. So as I haven't caught many fish of late it was time to change tactics...........
The fishing off Fortius has continued to be poor
Even the Plovers have stopped hanging around
Some times, you can go to fishing Mecca and have a mediocre or even poor trip. This is especially true of my trip out on Wednesday to a spot that had been getting good reports of some nice bass being caught the day before from Miss Connie. Now, Miss Connie is owned by another friend called Phil, So we don't get confused between Phil and myself well refer to him by his nick name (Phylis).
Sunday night Tuc sends a Txt out. "Will dangle a worm at 08.50 for 9". He had so many takers the next day we thought it would be a good idea to split the gang up into two boats and make a competition out of it.
Captains Tucs team (Fortius)
- Gary
- Tom
- Tuc
- Jen
- Phil
- Phil
Headed out to same area as we'd been fishing for a couple weeks, as we put lines in it was game on. First drop I hook a fish off the bottom. 3lbs bass, and as I am unhooking it Phylis hooks up with his first. And there it started, there were fish everywhere.
We looked across to Fortius all we had in recognision for our efforts was a slngle raised index finger and a load of verbal abuse (poor losers, shame on you boys). We were going through a slack so once the tide got going it really looked like it was going to turned on. It wasn't long before bass were coming over the rail.
Fortius : 2x Bass
Miss Connie : 10 x bass
The rest of the morning saw Phylis skilfully dodging the other boats and putting us over fish after fish. In all the excitement I didn't take any photos, The boys and girls on Captain Tuc's team looked a bit left out of the fish wars, so I put down the rod and picked up the camera, which is a hard thing to do when the fishing is this good. I sent Jen a text along with a photo of a big un'.
As predicted, when the catch gets low, anger rises, the sense of injustice grows, the irritation at fellow fisherman increases...
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| Fortius "Don't let the gulls fool you" |
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| 8 lbs 4oz |
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I Love Bank Holidays !!!!!! They just kept on coming ! |
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| CHICKS DIG ME, FISH FEAR ME |
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