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Tag Archives: fishing
EXCLUSIVE: Navy Trades Secrets With FTB About Piracy
Exclusive! This is a classified recording between the Royal Navy and followtheboat about anti-piracy tactics. Much of this conversation is secret and for the safety of future sailors making the same passage we are obliged to not broadcast any strategy undertaken by the British Royal Navy and the Vasco Da Gama rally. What we can broadcast, however, is a very interesting discussion between two senior Naval officers and the skippers and owners of private sail boats on the rally. The British Navy is one of over 60 different countries operating in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in the fight against piracy. If you know little about the piracy situation or what we as boat owners have to go through when considering our route through this dangerous stretch of water then you will find this very interesting.
Pirate Alley: Relax, It’s The Canadians!
With just one more day to go before our arrival in Salalah we’re under the impression that it is almost all over. The group relaxes in the dead calm seas, but there’s nothing like the sight of a warship on the horizon to excite these intrepid sailors. It’s time we pulled together to show these naval chaps exactly how coordinated we really can be!
Pirate Alley: Rhumb Do, Rhumb Don’t
This week’s podcast is our 40th episode! It finds us caught up in fishing nets again, slap bang in the centre of pirate alley. In last week’s episode Lo Brust, the rally leader aboard his boat Mistral, had successfully thrown a line to Jean-Claud and Marlene aboard Anthea. Anthea is now being towed by Mistral. It didn’t take long for another two boats to run into trouble… as well as each other. Patience is a commodity that can run out. Hope you enjoy this week’s drama, and don’t forget we provide a direct download link if you don’t use iTunes.
Pirate Alley: Towing The Line
The next part of our Pirate Alley excursion is quite unbelievable as we encounter three major problems within the same night! We’ve split the podcasts up and in the next couple of episodes we have a collision, more fishing net problems and you’ll also hear how one boat starts taking in water. Today’s episode, however, deals with the minor issue of a boat breaking down in the middle of nowhere!
Pirate Alley: Birthday Close Encounters
Pirate Alley: Jamie’s 40th birthday. No partying for him though as we contend with disfunctional alternators and two suspicious fishing dows. Could they be pirates? And if so, what chance do we have of reinforcing our safty in numbers strategy if Esper’s group is all over the place?
Pirate Alley: Night Diving
The hilarious departure from Port Aden raises our spirits as we begin our journey into Pirate Alley. Within two hours disaster strikes as one of the boats runs into a fishing net. In the dark.
This collective of boats isn’t called a rally for nothing. Listen to the boats rallying together to get us through the first of many hurdles lying ahead
Dancing Our Way Out Of Yemen
The day before we left Aden we were invited to another leaving do put on by Colonel Mohammed the Coast guard-cum-port police-cum-general bigwig.
We were thrilled to find that they had invited a group of ten young fishermen who were dancing to a live band, performing traditional dance. They then invited the rally participants to join them and Jamie couldn’t resist busting out his moves. One of the coastguards very kindly gave us a video clip of this momentous ocassion, telling us that this was the first and only time an English man has danced in routine with Yemeni fishermen! You can see the clip on the website.
After the dance we polled some of the rally participants about their thoughts on the next leg of the trip, which takes us through Pirate Alley.
In this podcast we also got to chat to a Yemeni woman, covered head to foot in black with just her eyes visible. Her English is excellent and makes for a great little interview.
Jaigarh – A Remote Fishing Village
We’ve been sitting pretty in Cochin for a couple of months now, but we’ve still got some catching up to do on the blog. Yep, some more snaps, this time of a beautiful, remote fishing village 110 miles south of Mumbai. The village was called Jaigarh and it was spectacular.
It was spectacular in part because of its location. Tucked up inside the mouth of a wide river that meets the sea the entrance into the natural harbour had the depth gauge nervously displaying less than 2m under the keel. The village, hidden behind an old fort wall and a big hill with a solitary temple on it, sits at the foot of an extremely lush palm forest. Aside from the parks of Mumbai this was the first time we had seen vegetation on this scale since the journey to Asmara in Eritrea, some 2,000 miles away. This was a real novelty after the deserts of Arabia, so come check out the pictures of this wonderful village…
Am I Back In Holland?
This huge, shallow marsa looked a bit like the Dutch waterways. Another bird sanctuary-cum-BBQ spot. I could attempt to impress you with a description of this fantastic sailing destination but you’ll just get jealous, so instead I’ll impress you with a picture of a blue-tipped reef shark we caught. Tasted bloody lovely when shallow fried in batter!
Bigger Fish To Fry
In our last podcast we had just entered Sudan, where we discovered an idyllic anchorage and met Duygu The Dugong. We reluctantly left this spot a couple of days later and continued sotuhwards on to our next Sudanese marsa, Inkeifel. Expect plenty of fish, the perfect barbie-on-a-beach, a mangrove swamp and a possible sighting of Ursula Andress, though I suspect that last bit is all in Jamie’s mind.
Gulf of Suez Podcast Part 2
This is the second of two 20 minute podcasts recorded as we transited out from the canal and into the Gulf of Suez. If you’ve ever wondered what a Beaufort Force Seven (gusting eight) is like, we can now tell you. We have the underpants to prove it. That cargo ship approaching the side of our boat didn’t help but we made it across from the Sinai back to the west coast of the Red Sea and eventually into Hurghada.
Gulf of Suez Podcast Part 1
This is the first of two 20 minute podcasts recorded as we transited out from the canal and into the Gulf of Suez. We finally leave the evil clutches of the Suez Authority and into open waters where we anchor for the first time in Egypt, have the best sail of our lives…ever… and catch a little fishy.
BEST SAIL YET!
Well, bloody well! Our best sail yet. In the world. Ever.
A cursory glance at the log book gives it away: