The Baltic: Getting there, and why you would want to, by Nicholas Hill
The Baltic has gone from a place visited by the intrepid few to the Cruising Association’s second most popular destination. The area covers ten countries, each very different. With better weather than the UK, no tides, and a few thousand harbours to explore, Nicholas Hill reckons it’s the place to be.
In this talk, he explains how to get there, and where to go when you have arrived.
Individual lecture tickets: Members £4.00 , Non-members £7.00
Croatia – the Mediterranean as it used to be, with Stuart Bradley
Why does Croatia get a bad press? Before moving to the Adriatic, Stuart and his crew picked up many negative comments about Croatia's officialdom, costs, and the unfriendliness of the native population. Their plan was to spend one season there and overwinter in Greece. However, after five summers cruising the coast and islands they have no plans to move on.
Colossus sank in 1798 off the Isles of Scilly. She was a 74 gun war ship. This is the story of the wreck and its salvage over the years, told by the divers that discovered it. Colossus was one of Nelson’s ships and carried an important and valuable cargo, owned by Sir William Hamilton.
The talk will include a 40 minute DVD made by the divers, who will also tell us about current diving and salvage projects around Scilly.
Individual lecture tickets: Members £4.00 , Non-members £7.00
Cruising the Bahamas (or Sailing in a Swimming Pool), with Angie and Mike Williams
Mike and Angie Williams left the UK in July 2005 with Lady of Lorien to cruise Spain, Portugal, Madeira, Canaries and the Caribbean. They spent five years around the US East Coast, returning to the Bahamas each winter as ‘snow birds’.
The tides have a major effect on our time on the water – and have a seemingly infinite variability around the world. From Ungava Bay to Lowestoft, from Venice to Port Circumcision, from Galileo to Dr Doodson, here is a description of how and why tides happen, how predictions are generated, and some of the other effects that we need to look out for, all from the man who gave us astro-navigation in 90 minutes.
Individual lecture tickets: Members £4.00 , Non-members £7.00
In Summer 2011 Paul and family spent a couple of weeks cruising the West Country in their Ovni yacht "Little Wing". Determined to make the most of the lift keel and shallow draft, they spent much time gunkholing as far as they could go up each harbour and river, getting to places inaccessible to most 40ft yachts. In Summer 2012 they returned, this time on passage to the Isles of Scilly.
Once again, the design of the Ovni proved ideal for exploring these amazing islands, letting them safely navigate the tricky routes, shallow depths and frequent rocks.
"It’s a cook’s dilemma not to overprovision and have perishable things wasted, or get to the stage where there is not much variety left.” says Julia in her diary of a boat cook. When John Simpson stood up at a CA Crewing Service meeting to ask for volunteers to join him on the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, Julia jumped at the chance.
