Adam F Posted May 11, 2013 Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 Another awesome trip this year! Apologies for the delay in posting but its been a hectic week back at work. ---- DAY 1 Well! What a change this year not to be checking the blimmin forecast every few hours.... after looking windy a week out, the forecast started to mould into something very nice indeed, and stayed that way - very calming to the nerves for planning such a trip. Whatever you say, and even though we have done this trip half a dozen times now, it's still a hell of an adventure, and quite an undertaking to take 9 small boats over the channel for 4 days! Weeks of planning, prep and maintenance came to a head on the Thurs where we loaded JV with fuel, spare fuel, water, ice, food and a mountain of clothes and tackle - it amazes me everytime how JV manages to swallow 4 trolley loads of kit! She is tardis-like I think! Mind you I got grief all weekend for keeping tidying things away! Fri morning came around after a restless, excited night for sleep for all skippers and crews, and come 5.30 / 6am we were boarding the boats and RV on Ch6 ready for the off. The weather looked superb - light F1-2 and sunny! Just how we like it. Soon we were crossing the chain ferry, but JV had just what I didnt want before departing on a 60 mile+ crossing.... a fault code and engine shut down - bugger. I stopped the engine, cleared the code and off we went - bizarre?!? Im never keen on wrecking on day 1, as you end up dragging the fish around on ice for 4 days, so we planned to bag some mackeral on the trip over and then go turbot fishing. after 30 miles, i throttled back and we drifted the first wreck with feathers....nothing! The feedback had been that Macks were hard to find, and whilst we had frozen, we really wanted fresh.... On to the next wreck - bingo, the first mackeral of the year - but they were tightly balled and we needed to be bang on the drift to get them. After we had maybe 30 in the box we plotted in a route to the Casquets and headed South - then the trouble started :-( Another fault code and engine shuts off - mid channel - 35 miles from Poole and less than a mile from the Shipping Lane - that feeling in your stomach is aweful.... this time clearing the code didint work, neither did checking all the obvious things.... a quick precautionary call to Alfresco to warn them we might need help and they very kindly changed course and began steaming the 5 miles or so over to asssit. I now realise why I carry so many tools and spares on JV - within a few mins we had worked out that she was pulling air into the fuel system, and isolated the issue to either the new ball valve on the fuel line, or more likely the recently serviced Racor filter. We had them stripped, removed, cleaned and re-sealed within about 10 mins and after re-starting she stayed running - I informed Alfresco - who was now in sight, who stood down but stayed in touch and after a few nearvy minutes had JV back up to a fast cruise again - phew! My money was on the O-ring not sealing right on the top of the Racor. Thanks again Charlie for your assistance! Around midday we finally arrived on the SW Casquets - not my favourite turbot bank, but I didnt fancy the extra 15 miles to the Schoale. Anyway, fears were un-founded, as in just 6 drifts we had 5 turbo and 1 dropped fish on the boat! Job done! An easy run back to Braye for fuel - 95L - which for some 80 miles with so much kit onboard was remarkable! Due to the new 4 bladed prop?? It was now Tony D's turn for bad luck - he had lost speed back to about 8 knots, 3 miles out and had limped in. The man from Sea-Start confirmed no issues with the engine, but with the water temp barely out of single figures - no one fancied an early bath to look-see! JV's turn to help out, I had my new GoPro camera onboard which I had mounted on a 2.4m pole in a 40m waterproof housing - so we videoed Serenity's underside, popped the SD card into an Ipad and BINGO! There it was.... a nice peice of poly netting wound around the prop and shaft! Boat re-fuelled, and kit dropped off at the Fleet House we made our way up to the customary first night stop - The Maris Hall. Love this place - it's like a time warp.... even the people never change! No need for menus.... its the same as it was 8 years ago! Pepper steaks, and a few beers.... we're back in Alderney!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam F Posted May 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 Day 2 The wonderful forecast had slipped a little by Fri eve, and the forecast was very borderline for the Sat - F4-5 W gusting 6 for a while... not good at all, however all the weather sites agreed that it was to blow through in 24 hours and were giving cracking weather Sun and Mon, so all skippers and crews agreed that loosing one day wasnt the end of the world. Some boats opted to chill for the day, pay a visit to Mark @ Alderney Angling, a bit of sight seeing, a few beers etc... others opted to have a go. Guess what JV did? 'Fish ard' or go home' was the motto of the trip for us, so just after 9am we nudged out of Braye and headed round the back of the island, in an attempt to find a bit of shelter. Ive had days like this over there before - and they can be hard work - without the intricate knowledge of the islanders or regular charter skippers, the numerous, tucked in little marks that can show spectacular fishing, can be hard work to find, let alone getting the timings and tides right. You often end up with a 'bit of a nothing day' where you scratch here and there for not alot. The South Banks were lumpy but fishable so we perservered for a couple of hours - nothing, then the tide got up... next stop was Blanchard's - very tough in the wind and tide, a bit like drifting St Albans ledge on a windy day - but more compact waves! Plan C was Speedy Rock for Tope - Al was less than keen, but I love these speedy scrapers, so banged the hook in on the last 30 min of the midday slack. At anchor was significantly less comfortable than drifiting, and the boys quickly went quiet - focusing on the horizion. It was windy - F5 Westerly, grey, spots of rain, lumpy and now 1pm, lunch was late... the calm of Braye was calling! A snatchy bite grabbed my attention and I gave it line, before pulling into it - a strange fight, had be calling big ray all the way to the boat - until it surface, unrolled from the trace and a reasonable tope dived hard for the bottom! after a decent scrap a long lean, 25lb (ish) tope was returned - misson accomplished. We then agreed to head back - not before a quick 30 min session on the Nannels, pollack bashing with 30gm spinning rods and Savage Eels - awesome fun, that put a smile back on our faces. Finally back into Braye for a very late lunch - a mixed mezze of cold meats and mediterranean salad to share, washed down with a cold beer. Dinner tonight was a new resturant - the Georgain House. Lovely surroundings and great company with the other guys - the food wasnt bad, but a tad over priced IMHO for what the food was. Still, a pleasant eve! The forecast for Sun was looking awesome.... no wind, sunshine...... our plan was to go BIG... and go early!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam F Posted May 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 Day 3 Go BIG, and go early - that was the plan. The forecast was perfect and with it being out last full day on the island, we wanted to make the most of it. A simple plan was hatched over several beers in the Maris Hall the evening before: Up early, out to Speedy for tope, catch the tide down to the Schoal Bank, bag up on Turbo, back to the Nannels for a few Pollack and then into the Harbour Lights for tea and medals with the lads....OK...beer and medals! We we managed the first two parts of the plan! We managed to get up early and caught a taxi on Alfresco out to JV before gunning it over to the mark for 7.30. This was still a bit late though and the tide was already underway - still, we popped the anchor in and dropped down tope baits - a few tentative plucks were all we had and within 30 mins the anchor had slipped, so we hauled in and tucked in behind the rocks for a bit of toping on the drift.... until 5 mins later Alfresco calls on the VHF with a rope around the prop.....not good. Whilst it was far from ideal, we didnt even question it on JV - I guess when we all boat together what goes around comes around - A quick discussion with the crew, Al cleared the decks and rigged fenders, Rob rigged a sliding bridle and within a few mins we had Alfresco (Alfres-tow! ) in tow. The tide was now against us about 3 knots - we had some overfalls and tide generated swell to contend with and about 3 miles to travel back to Braye. I informed Alderney Coastguard who kept in touch on ch74. Progressed seemed painfully slow - Alfresco is about twice the weight of JV id guess... but eventually we lost the tide and entered Braye. I decided it easier to tandem rig Alfresco alongside - rather than 'slaming her into the wall'.... so with minimal fuss we re-positioned and soon had her alongside for Dan to whip off the props. It felt good to help Charlie, but was a rather stressful couple of hours with lots to think and worry about - ive not towed before. All good practise though. We waved Alfresco bye and thanked Nige on Wishin for standing bye, and together we shot off down the Swinge... after 90 mins at no more than 4 knots, I felt like opening her up - so with the new prop on 3600rpm gave us a nice 32 knots with the tide and a big grin! We were eventually down on the bank by 10am and really for the Turbos... Al was first in, first drift but after a rather bizaree fight, we called Tope, on seeing a long grey thing coming up... then BASS.. and a bloody big one! as I scrambled for the net - Al then shouts 'blimey, it just left like a salmon!' before we all chorus in union 'it IS a SALMON!!!' Only AJ could catch a flippin bass on the Schoal Bank!! 8lb 8oz - and a new club record I think? Anyway, after the tide fell away the fishing slowed, but we persevered... the tide came good again mid afternoon, the sun came out, the Turbos started biting, the music came on, the beers came out, the sea got flatter.... and flatter - all was good with the world! I was in a purple patch and after struggling on day 1, I couldnt put a rod wrong - fish after fish, 5 fish to the boat on one drift! I lost what felt like a big turbo - it fought hard and deep - definatly a turbo, but after a 5 min scrap the hook pulled. I was gutted, I hate loosing fish.... but after 8 fish to my rods that day it went some way to balancing things up! 18 turbot, 1 bass, 1 salmon and a cuttlefish was the tally for the day. Best turbot was about 8lb. A fair few small fish, all of which were returned if not 45cm. As we had a rather delayed start we decided to cancel dinner - apologies to Terry for messing up his hard work and plans. We stayed down on the banks until the tide died around 7pm... had the most wondefully smooth run back to Braye at 20 knots on a glassy sea, before mooring in the warm sunshine, cooked up a plate of Chilli and Rice on the boat for tea and washed it down with a cold Stella.... a fantastic memory. Up to the Divers for a few well earnt beers with Alfresco and Wishin crews, chew the fat over the fishing and enjoy the bottle of red from Charlie for helping him out..... sleep wasnt a propblem that night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam F Posted May 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 Day 4 Last day. Boy that went quick! Cracking weather again - blue sky, light F1-2 SW winds.... lovely. Simple plan for us today - big breakfast, fuel up JV, duty free, then off the the SW Casquets until lunchtime for a few turbot - then point the bows North, head off to a few wrecks Ive not managed to get over before, bag up on pollack and cod and then blast home for about 7pm. The fishing on the Casquets was good - fish most drifts and a better average size too. I was still flying anf had another 4 fish in 2 hours, we had another 9 on the boat. All too soon it was time to tidy away and break out the pirks. Pushing a little bit of tide slowed us down a little but we were soon 20 miles north of Alderney and over some rusty lumps - the fishing however was a little poor, and after trying another 4 marks we had a handful of Pollack up to about 8lb and a single Cod to me in the box. It was now 4pm, and with 38 miles to run, it was time for home - purring along at 20 knots on a flat sea, a couple of boxes of fish and a fantastic few days, the trip back easily slipped by. Back in Poole, tied alongside, I'm sure I head JV moan a sigh of relief when we emptied the 8 cool boxes, 6 kit bags, leads, rods, clothing etc from her! She certianly rose several inches in the water! So that's it! Another epic trip across the channel - in fact, probably the best so far for me. Great fishing, good friends old and new, superb weather and lovely food.... whatelse do you want?....... Except to go again next year.........!! Stuie and pegleg 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
great white Posted May 11, 2013 Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 Nice reports Adam , thanks for sharing You were very welcome to that bottle of red mate. Thanks again for the tow and not slamming us into the harbour wall Look forward to seeing the video when you have the time to edit it. and Looking forward to next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted May 11, 2013 Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 Very good read Adam. Glad it all went well. Jim charlieannear 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob F Posted May 25, 2013 Report Share Posted May 25, 2013 Deep sigh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick Martin Posted May 26, 2013 Report Share Posted May 26, 2013 Next year Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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