Friday 28 March 2008

Exporing the Solent seabed

The Marine Coastguard Agency web site has loads of useful information. I recently came across a part I had not found before: The Civil Hydrography Programme. Needless to say I had not deliberately gone looking for it. This is in fact very useful - it is the result of sea-bed surveys which are published in the form of Google Earth overlays, and shows the sea-bed as if Moses has been by and parted the waters. All you have to do is install Google Earth (if you don't already have it), then go to MCA web site page and download the files covering your area of choice. There are two downloads covering the whole of the western arm of the Solent - just open Google Earth and load the maps from the downloaded files. Enjoy.

Tuesday 25 March 2008

Wet and Windy Easter

It just doesn't get better, does it? Monday was the only remotely fishable day, but it wasn't worth ordering worm. I went down to the marina with a box of squid, and spied the state of the water with a quick drive along the prom. It looked fishable, and there were a few boats by The Blocks already. Salar was waiting patiently, none the worse for the gales and a few weekends of neglect. She started first time and I headed out of the harbour entrance. The initial enthusiasm soon evaporated as it was bitterly cold, the sky and sea were a similar grey and a run down to Bracklesham was not really viable. Salar wasn't pulling with the usual enthusiasm, probably a bit of muck had grown on the blades because of the lack of use. I decided to use the time cleaning the blades instead of fishing, so it was back to the marina for a bit of underwater scrabbling. Reversing into a berth with a brisk crosswind is not easy, and after six attempts (I lost count after five anyway) we made it. I discovered that if you keep your hands under freezing cold water for five minutes it no longer hurts, so the rest of the prop-scraping with an old knife wasn't too bad. Back out to sea with a shiny prop and Salar showed she was capable of anything again. Let's hope next weekend it better!

Thursday 13 March 2008

Not a lot of fishing

March is always a bad month for me - not because of the fishing, which can be quite good for early plaice, but there are two family birthdays which involve weekend get-togethers, and Easter is coming up too. The family has no sympathy for fishing and thoughts are turning to Spring breaks, "what shall we do with the children over Easter" and other fishing blockages. On top of that, there has been some spectacularly stormy weather - did you look at the Hayling surfcam during the height of the storm? Spectacular. Anyone who left their dinghy on the top of the spit by the ferry will have a surprise: the half inch chain that they were secured to snapped, scattering about 30 tenders all over the harbour and the Winner. So instead of fishing, I have been turning my attention to fishing-related enterprise. Have a look at the Shop to see the result: the first 30 fishing-related t-shirts have been launched, so stop me and buy one!