Adventures on and off the High Seas.

I could start, with when I happened to run into some of the members from Who, (the band) or when I changed course mid ocean to pick up a survivor, or fought off drug runners on one of the islands, or battled a 220 mph hurricane.
Or 99 percent of the time, when the weather was great, the sun sets were fantastic, ( I might show you those anyway, because they were great) and we arrived in port just in time to find a restaurant for dinner.
What would you like to experience?
Brian.
When you run into the rock band the Who....... Can hardly wait! :) P.
 
So, back to the tale.
This happened in August of 1979, the reason I remember the date so well will become clear as I progress.
At that time I was working for a boat building company in Brightlingsea, Essex and most of my spare time was spent racing Olympic tornado catamarans, however I was also into water skiing.
The racing event that I should have attended that weekend was cancelled because of strong winds, so my wife and I decided to take our ski boat out and do some water skiing instead.
We launched the boat at the Brightlingsea slipway and headed out the channel towards the river, I was hoping to find a sheltered place to ski.
I noticed in the river, there was a big dutch type barge anchored and thought at the time, what a strange place to be anchored!
We found a place and skied a while, but the wind speed was increasing all the time, so we turn around and headed back in.
By this time the barge was gone and had in fact moved into the Brightlingsea channel to try and find better shelter.
As we came level to the barge, there were some people on deck and were beckoning us to go over to there. As I pulled alongside I could see that their inflatable dingy had blown over and the outboard engine was under water.
The barge was called the Turtle and the captain told me that he had an important phone call he needed to make ashore and asked if I could run him in, this was before mobile phones, so no problem, I took him ashore.
As we were dragging our boat onto it's trailer, the captain came back over to talk to me, having made his phone call, telling me that he had a proposition to put to me!
He told me that it was his birthday and two of his bosses were to join him and friends at the hotel for a meal, which would then be continued back on-board Turtle.
He asked if we would like to be his guests for dinner, in return for bringing everybody too and from the barge later that evening. My wife and I talked it over and excepted his offer. We grabbed some dry clothes out of the car, pushed the ski boat back in the water and took the captain back out to his vessel.
When we got on board, we were given an introduction to the rest of the crew and a tour of Turtle.
The back of the barge housed the crew accommodations, galley, etc.
The rest of the boat forward had a huge lounge/bar area and about twenty cabins forward of that, each with it's own on suite shower and toilet.
The captain (sorry I can't remember his name) told me that there was a sister ship the same size as Turtle, that was fitted out as a recording studio and that both boats were normally moored together in the Thames and that the Turtle was the accommodations boat, but on occasions would go off on these jollies.
The barges were owned by the band "The Who".
More to follow..
Very good, can hardly wait for the next instalment :) P.
 
I could start, with when I happened to run into some of the members from Who, (the band) or when I changed course mid ocean to pick up a survivor, or fought off drug runners on one of the islands, or battled a 220 mph hurricane.

Ah ah that old hat thing. I have worked at sea for over 40 years now so can understand where you are coming from. Never met The Who but did meet Rammstein on the way home once. Never experienced a 220mph hurricane but have sat through 130 knot winds. Never picked up any survivors but I did survive being jailed in South Africa. Plenty of salty arsed seamen type stories to tell

What would I like to experience next?

To go home and live a normal life
 
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