On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 17:35:05 GMT, Simon Brooke <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:in message <[email hidden]>, [Not
Responding (') said:Pete Biggs said:Oldskoolskater wrote:
> Having read prev posts about the above I'm not sure about whether to
> buy a Ridgeback Nemesis??
Is that with the Inter-8? That hasn't been out long enough to judge
its longetivity.
Well, I've got the Inter-8 on my Subway and it's lasted fine so far. 3
months and 25 miles, that is🙁
Oh good, I was thinking we hadn't heard from you for a while. How's it
going? How's the arm?
Arm's still not up to much. Riding a bike is OK but signalling is a
bit dicey; indicating left involves arm hanging by side and finger
pointing out. Getting hand back on the bar can then take a couple of
lunges. Signalling right is even more interesting; ability to steer
with left hand only is variable in the extreme.
I'm planning to start commuting by bike again come September so it's
not totally incapacitating. My Peak District trip gave me an awful lot
of confidence.
I've not been posting much because I've been cramming a lot of sailing
in around the day job. Did my first Channel crossing on, of all days,
Friday 13th. It's only a small boat (26'😉 and none of us had done the
crossing before. Combined with challenging weather, it was all a bit
more than "fun", than we'd planned.
(Going completely OT):
The third man was roped in at the last minute when I finally admitted
that I wasn't really fully fit yet. He'd never been sailing before but
as I'd done a bit of climbing with him in the past, I knew he'd be up
to it. It was a shame I'd forgotten he's still walking with a limp
from a climbing accident a few years ago. You get the picture; it was
not an ideal crew!
It was a tad windy so we watched from the pub and had almost decided
to call it off when, at 2000, it quietened down. As the forecast was
for it to get even better we decided to get as far as the western exit
from the Solent and suck and see. After not *too* much agonising, we
took the plunge and headed down the Needles Channel. And regretted it
almost instantly. All the usual ingredients for sailing; wetness,
darkness, rain, wind and waves but all in much greater quantities than
we were at all happy with. It must have been windy because even fully
reefed we were screaming along (or, rather up and down).
It calmed down in the end and we had a clear night sky and a wake of
phosphorescence. Shortly after dawn we saw a whale (or at least some
form of bloody big marine mammal). Arrived in France in time for an
evening of food and wine.
The trip back had its moments. We had a brief moment of alarm when
someone sticks their head up after a kip saying "the bloody boat's
filling with water!" Then we pointed out it had been pissing it down
for 4 hours and his socks would've been drier if he'd shut the hatch.
A bit later on, we hit something. No idea what; sailing along out of
sight of land and ships and there's a bang and the whole boat judders.
Open jawed Laurel & Hardy faces all round. No damage but a bit of a
wake up. Decided it probably wasn't a container or we'd have been
sitting in the liferaft having the "WTF was that?" discussion.
The shipping lanes were ghastly. I've done a bit of night sailing but
this was my first real exposure to doing it for real[1]. It ain't
quite like the text books. I think I spent half an hour giving way to
a village on the Isle of Wight at one point.
[1] Yeah, I know I must have crossed them on the way out. We somehow
failed to notice more than the occasional ship.
Navigation was spot on and we arrived at the Needles bang on sunrise
and slack water. Tied up 19 hours after leaving Cherbourg.
Anyway, that's one of the reasons I've been quiet lately. Actually I'm
off to France again tomorrow. This time by Eurostar; a 20 minute
crossing rather than a 20 hour crossing.
