Category Archives: Goose Freckles

04/03/2012

Where it all began

By hairygoose

Went for a scuba yesterday with Aquanaught Divers here in Antigua.  Bit of a trip down memory lane really.  It was here 5 years ago that I took my first plunge into the depths at the dive site ‘Pillars of Hercules’ just outside of the entrance to English Harbour.

My Instructor of choice was One Eyed John. A slight fella in his 60’s, an ex-pat from blighty much like myself.  One eyed John taught me for my first diving lisence and also my most recent dive master 2 years ago.  Back then, he was celebrating being cancer free for 5 years after his second battle with the disease.

Before we dropped in for the second dive of the day at ‘Pillars of Hercules’ John was telling me that the doctor had ordered him to only dive once per day as he was back on chemotherapy to fight the cancer for a third time.

Now John might me frail but he really is anything but weak.  This guy has always amazed me.  He can dive twice on 1 scuba tank when other divers have to use a tank for each dive. His fins he can keep on without the ankle straps, with that one eye he can spot more stuff than me and it still amazes me when he takes his tank off at 12 metres, hands it to me and then slowly ascends to the boat. What we would certainly refer to in blighty as  ‘A good old bugger’.

 

Now, lets talk about the boat that I came here to see.  Sarissa is a 42 metre carbon fibre sloop built by Vitters and launched last year.  A couple of years ago, I was approached by a captain I know who was working for the owner on his last boat.  I was shown the plans of the boat and asked if I would be interested in engineering it form build.  Of course I was but unfortunately my friend departed the programme before I could join.  I have chased the boat more recently and finally got the opportunity to come and see it as they were looking for an engineer.

A fast modern sailing boat, good crew, high tech systems – of course I was into it. Imagine my pain when I realised how small the engine room was and just how cramped I would be in there – at the tallest part, it was 25cm too short for me, at its worst – even when kneeling, I still had to duck my head. So, with regret I had to tell the captain on friday that I couldn’t work the boat for him. I was wounded!

So – back to blighty on tuesday night, then oral exam in Southampton at the end of the month, after that, I have a new project up my sleeve already.

 

 

 

 

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22/02/2012

Where’s Bea ?

By hairygoose

Just because it is so funny – here it is one more time

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOyPg8UM0IU

 

More vids soon of my little kelp dive in Santa Catalina

 

 

 

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20/02/2012

West Coast

By hairygoose

10 days have passed since I arrived here in So Cal.  I can summarise the visit so far in just four words – so if you are planning a visit to Los Angeles, Orange County or the immediate surrounding areas – one thing you need to know

THE TRAFFIC IS SHITE

Four simple words that perfectly summarise what you can expect here. I did venture up to Las Vegas for the weekend, primarily to shoot some guns but I also indulged in a couple of other things that were of interest to me – indoor karting with electric karts and also indoor skydiving.

The karts were superb – and quiet too so you could even hear the music they were playing while you were razzing around – I posted the second fastest lap of the session, which was a disappointment – I overtook everyone at least twice, even gently giving some of the slower fannies a nudge as they slowed me up but there was one person that was half a second quicker than me – most likely that anorexic 14 year old that was also in my group – the little spotty twat!

Nonetheless – thoroughly recommended – www.polepositionraceway.com

After that little flurry – I was prepared for something a little more hard core so headed to Vegas Indoor Skydiving. I paid up, signed in and had an hour or so to kill before it was my time.  I watched a few kids having a lot of fun but more importantly I watched people my own age give it a go too. Finally, in a jump suit that the girls from ABBA would have been proud of, I entered the fan room/wind tunnel or whatever you might call it.  From this point – my description could only be considered gibberish so I have uploaded the video onto youtube so follow the link to watch it.  I will try to add all videos here but wordpress want to charge a lot of money to add video and youtube is free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxBTUDY8jRI&context=C3a9d21dADOEgsToPDskIdsLV1U4BDCGBxvaYJLIZA

That was enough fun for one day.

Sunday – midday, I have an appointment at the Gun Store – Now this I thoroughly recommend.  Ok, it cost me 500 dollars but I had the VIP range all to myself with an instructor and was able to shoot a Glock 19, SIG SAUER P226, FN/FAL, G36, AK-47, MP5, M249 S.A.W., Russian RPD, AR-15, M4 to name just a few. Rifles in semi automatic and also in full auto.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect but a couple of them did put a big grin on my face.  For added bonus points – all shots were on target – even in full auto.

www.thegunstorelasvegas.com

I have video of all of them of course – the muzzle flash from the AK-47 in full auto was very cool – I am posting all videos today hopefully so come and have a look – they will either be links to youtube or I will splash out and buy the upgrade for this site.

Tomorrow I am heading to Catalina Island for some scuba fun before finally heading back to blighty on thursday.

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17/02/2012

Virgin Atlantic direct to Los Angeles

By hairygoose

I loved that flight – it might have been over 10 hours long but it certainly didn’t seem like it. A direct flight to LA from Heathrow for less than 500 quid! Ok, I paid an extra 30 quid at check in for a seat with 3” extra leg room but that was well worth it – it was so comfortable and smooth and the flight crew were just EPIC, Virgin Atlantic are now at the top of my best airline list, dropping BA down to second place.

Now, pushing my luck – I chose to watch one very specific movie – ‘Final Destination 5’.  For those that are not in the know, the whole final destination series is about groups of people that escape from a fatal situation only to be picked off one at a time by other disastrous yet hilariously funny consequences – and of course there is the air liner crash too – I was fair shitting myself with that one – I did wonder how many other passengers might dare to watch it.

I saved a couple of movies for the return leg, Johnny English Pt. 2 , Cars 2 and also Tower Heist.

So lets talk about America – Fuck yeah! – or more specifically Los Angeles.  As we were flying in, it wasn’t possible to see the whole city as the smog was blocking the view. Then we cleared the airport, even had very pleasant border control staff that got the job done quickly – unlike Newark! A rental car – Chevy Malibu and the bird found 50 bucks on the toilet floor – Nice!  then we hit the motorway – or as they say here ‘Freeway’.  There was absolutely fuck all free about it I can assure you – 6 lanes – 6 in each direction, all going nowhere.  It took over 3 hours to do the 31 miles from the airport to the hotel.  They have a car pool lane, probably called a high occupancy lane in some places – 2 or more people in your veeee hickle and you have a lane all to yourself – best part of that is, that lane is slower than the others, kind of removes the incentive to share cars, reduce emissions, improve the air quality and save money but then what would I know – I’m just a dumb ass limey !

We trotted off to Huntingdon beach at the weekend – very west coast! It’s very calm and relaxed out here, so much so that it reminded me of that old Baz Luhrmann song – Everybody’s free to wear sunscreen, where he suggests ‘Live in Northern California once but leave before it makes you soft’ Pure genius, kind of summarises the place perfectly.

I also headed out to Hermosa Beach on tuesday and rented a bike, a cruiser to be more precise.  I rode along the beach front for 20 miles or there abouts, all the way up to Venice Beach and back.  I found myself strangely drawn to a factory with two big chimneys.  I got my camera out and started snapping when finally a police car passed me. On his door ‘El Segundo’ – I was only in Tyler territory.  Still none the wiser?  Then look up a film called ‘Singlefin: Yellow’ you will then know exactly where I was standing – better still, ask me nicely and I will lend you the DVD.

So – for the weekend – Vegas baby.  I have booked in at a local gun range there, 500 dollars gets me my own instructor and a wealth of firearms to experience – including two belt fed machine guns, 3 fully automatic machine guns, 2 semi automatic assault rifles and 3 hand guns of my choice.  I aim to see if I can understand Americas fatal attraction with firearms – and just for the record I hope to capture my experience with my Go Pro HD camera so be sure to stop by here in a weeks time to see what is up there to view

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07/02/2012

Menin Gate – Ypres

By hairygoose

Finally yesterday I made my way to the village that was once known as Ypres.  These days it is known more by its flemish name of Ieper but everyone knows the name Ypres.

I wanted to see this monument, the gate that leads eastward out of the town where many soldiers walked out of on their way to the front line.  I wasn’t really prepared for what I would experience.

I parked close to the monument and approached from the southern end.  I stopped at a small monument for the 160,000 Indian troops that died in both wars before walking up to the now imposing gate. The gate itself is huge but the first thing I noticed was the southern wall filled with names, ranks and regiments. It did truly take my breath away.

We are all aware of the ‘numbers’ involved with human life lost during the wars but numbers really mean nothing, especially when they are so huge they are incomprehensible. I was now face to face with a wall maybe 50 feet high and 100 feet long – filled from floor to ceiling, end to end with names from all around the world.

I started walking down the stairs to pass inside the gate.  At my first turn, I noticed more names on the walls, in fact, at every turn, wherever there was wall space there were names – from top to bottom, from end to end – under the archways, besides the stair cases – there was no space free.

Then – inside the gate itself, a huge cavern, decorated with names – every where you look, huge long lists, 50 feet high or more.

I crossed the road inside the gate and passed out through the northern entrance – again, every inch of wall space had a name, rank and regiment on it. Some names had poppies stuck next to them – some people must have brought ladders to put them up, they were too high for even me to get close to.  Some freshly laid wreaths from the evenings ceremony the day before.

Since 1928 – The Last Post has been played every night at The Menin Gate – only stopping briefly between 1939 and 1945.  I planned to stay on to witness this too.

8pm sharp! As you would expect with military precision. I was surprised at how many people turned out bearing in mind that this is a daily tradition – even more surprised to see the majority of visitors were school age. I snapped a few sneaky photos of the Buglers before they started playing, then lowered my camera and took my hat off as The Last Post was played. By the time the ‘Rouse’ was played I was shivering. Cold from maybe 3 minutes without my furry hat. It was cold. snow on the ground and just below freezing. I was left wondering just how, in trenches dug in open fields, with no technology keeping them warm, those soldiers survived months on months of this cold and still had energy and the will to dodge german artillery and bullets.

Back in my nice warm car on the way back to Brussels I started thinking.  There are 54,839 names on the Menin Gate. These are names of soldiers that have no known resting place which effectively means somewhere out in the Belgian country side, there are 54,839 bodies buried under the soil – Think about the enormity of this for just a moment – nearly 55,000 bodies laying in the countryside – but then I remembered that wasn’t true – The Menin Gate is just 1 of 4 such monuments in Belgium.

To the right of this posting is a link to the photos I took while there – entitled ‘54,839’. Please take a look at them – click the link, then click the first photo to view it full page and scroll through all of them – I tried hard to capture the scale of what I was seeing.

For the Lazy Facebook generation, you can also click this link –

https://thenovemberarchives.com/1796-2/

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03/02/2012

Nemo 33

By hairygoose

I finally made it there – 20 minutes from the birds pad in downtown Brussels.  Ok, so the thought of diving in a pool may not fill you with excitement but this is a custom built jobbie with underwater caves, air locks so that while you are at 10 metres down you can surface inside the cave and take your gear off and have a chat, then there is a part they call ‘the pit’.  The entrance of the pit is in 10 meters of water but then it drops a further 23 metres straight down until you are 33 metres under water.  My dive buddy was not a deep diver so I left him sitting on the edge of the pit while I went down to have  look.  Also a recent addition is a ‘Smart Car’. In around 5 metres of water, completely stripped out so that you can swim through it – although I am curious as to why it had a brand new set of tyres on it and even more curious as to how they got it up there and into the pool.

Now the best bit – water temp of around 28ºC so shorts were the order of the day.  We did take a couple of photos so if i get them emailed, they will appear here.

This afternoon I got to the pad at around 3pm, checked my mail and then started playing xbox live. After less than an hour of slaying Nazi Zombies i took my headphones off just in time to hear the ring of a text message arriving. Was there snow here was the message.  I opened the blinds and by crikey if there wasn’t two inches of fresh snow covering everything – excellent ! Now of course I don’t mind the snow but the missus is on her way back from Hamburg and is a little delayed.  Better still, the ring road around central Brussels is at a stand still too, so I may get an unexpected bonus time on the xbox!

We also had the green light from her boss for me to accompany her on her next business trip – TO LOS ANGELES !!!!!!!!!! So i get 2 weeks out there and only have to pay airfare and food, the return flight with Virgin was less than 500 squid so no problems there.  One curious thing I noticed, the BA flight and Virgin flight were exactly the same price – down to the penny. Weren’t they both accused of price fixing a couple of years ago ?

Anyway – I chose Virgin for 2 reasons. 1. Never flown with them before, and 2. the BA flight was on a 747, if you get an older one, no individual TV and videos – imagine that on an 11 hour flight!  (Lufthansa – hang your heads in shame, last time I transatlantic’d with you on a 747 it was old and worn)

A trip to the supermarket today meant that I could stock up on Chimay Blue which will surely make a few faces smile in England.  I am heading back on Thursday morning to tie up a couple of loose ends and then get on that Virgin flight back to 30º temperatures.

But for now, I think I am about done.

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26/01/2012

Accidental Playlist

By hairygoose

Superb, completely by accident – just having a bite to eat and while making it decided to hunt for a track by name on my ipod.

Levels – by Avicii

Curiously, when it had finished I waited to see what came next, Crescendolls by Daft Punk, then Destiny – Zero 7 and then the very spiffing Mountains – Biffy Clyro all topped off with fit but you know it by the streets – classic streets – ‘scuse me girl,  I know it’s a bit embarrassing but I just noticed some tan lines……………………on your shirt !  First Class lyrics by Mr. Skinner if you ask me.

Enough of that – so where have I been ? Mallorca – or, for the less frequent followers, Costa Rica and then Mallorca.  Mallorca was a quick trip to do some work for one of the smaller sailing boats that came on recommendation.  Being highly skilled and an honest John, what was billed as a months work was completed in 10 days and invoiced accordingly. So I left Mallorca on the Monday lunchtime ferry heading to Barcelona.  A small road trip planned from Barcelona to Antibes, Monaco and lastly Sanremo before heading north through Italy, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgium.  The idea of such an indirect road trip was to visit a few boat hang outs on the way and scout for work but I crossed paths with a recruitment agent in Antibes.  Now, initially you might think that statement sounded like a fruitful encounter but remember, this is a recruitment agent I am talking about. The woman I ended up speaking with was a complete ‘head up her arse’ bell end.  It struck a new theory for me – for those that can’t actually make the grade in the yachting industry but like to be able to tell people they are in the yachting industry – there is recruitment.  This woman was so bad that I no longer wish to talk to her, and I have also completely lost interest in the job they had in mind for me, told her to stop searching on my behalf and also blocked access to my documents that she needs.

Of course Karma is a good thing.  Some of you may remember the last boat I worked on called Secret Love – a real shitter of a vessel with messed up politics and a mislead owner,  a boat I quit purely on safety grounds!  You may or may not know that they were responsible for spoiling my passport and US visa and then declined to help me sorting them out after I had left.  Well today, the captain mailed me asking if I still had my work records for 3 months of last year as now they are selling the vessel and he has lost the copies I originally sent to him and stored on the ships computer.  Now, I reckon the total cost of replacing my passport and US visa came to around 500 pounds all in so I won’t even be responding to his email.

With all exams now complete, I have just an oral to take.  I will be heading to blighty tomorrow to have an upstanding member of the community sign my application and endorse my photos.  It seems extreme to travel just for that but now imagine that the last 5 years of my life have been geared towards this moment and the cost to me personally is around 14,000€ and for it to go tits up right now would be a disaster.

Take a look at the boat I have just been working on.  Its only small and doesn’t have a full time engineer but it does race a lot – nice little thing it is too

http://www.wally.com/open-season/

Today I am on fire – I mailed earlier the yard that build the boat that the agent in Antibes was talking to me about (although they didn’t tell me the name of the boat) and have just had the captains email sent to me – instantly, I fired off a cv.  Sadly for the agents, I have been watching very closely the Dutch boat yards Vitters and Royal Huisman.  My reason is simple, after working on Antares, a Huisman build, I am keen to get back on dutch yachts, so when the agent told me there was a 40 metre Vitters sailing yacht looking that had been launched in the last 6 months, I knew instantly who it was – silly agents !!!!

While I am here in Brussels I also absolutely have to sample Nemo 33 – for those not in the know, Nemo 33 is a pool here in Brussels made just for scuba diving and free diving.  ‘Diving in a pool’ I hear you say, ‘How very boring’ but hold your tongue.  The 33 in the name signals the pools depth, a whopping 33 metres or in old money a little over 108 feet – and it is at 27ºC so no suit required.  Still think it is boring? check the link out below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsbfdXl1toA&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLFC99D89CBE9FE9C5

If all else fails, Xbox subscription will be renewed and I can get my arse kicked on line.  Thats all for now, need to go and check over the car for tomorrows sprint to England and also fix the puncture on my bike – why do I get so many punctures? I almost forgot – While in Monaco I drove the Rover 75 across the F1 grid !!

 

 

 

 

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18/01/2012

Stick Walkers

By hairygoose

My time here is already over – less than two weeks and I have completed a months work already – a bargain for the skipper and a quick boost for the bank for me. I am already planning the next small road trip back to Belgium and my wonderful woman and of course the Chimay Blue.  This time though,  a little planning is required as there is snow on them there mountains that I need to get across – thats the Pyrenees to you geographically challenged!  I saw the weather on the TV just a day or so ago and noted a hefty amount of snow over there.  Be sure to pack my flask of hot soup and lots of warm jumpers just in case.

The missus tells me Brussels is cold.  I am not looking forward to that.  The big issue with loosing weight is that you loose body fat and fat is a damn fine insulator from the winter chills. Heres the thing – as of last week (friday to be exact) I have lost more than two and a half stones of blubber, thats around 40lbs to our yank chums or around 17kgs to our euro counterparts. I am now firmly under 16 stones – somewhere I haven’t been for at least 7 years – so I am feeling the cold.

Since arriving in Mallorca, I have managed to have two games of Squash – been around 8 years since I last played.  The devious mind is still there but the ability to move my body as fast as it needs to move is sadly lacking – so last week I got a keen arse whooping.  This week, not so bad.  I took more points and even managed to win a game.

My buttocks and leg muscles are sore now, so bad in fact that I haven’t ran for a few days.  Having boats out of the water also means lots of stairs to get on deck and of course being old, I get to the top of the stairs and forget what I went up there for and have to then walk back down to remember – so lots of stair exercise for me.  It all adds up to some phenomenal weight loss though – and for that, I am greatly appreciative.

This weekend is a big holiday in Palma – San Sebastian. It is a veritable fireworks extravaganza and that I am looking forward to.  An added benefit of finishing my work early means that I am now free to celebrate the weekend however I see fit.  Tomorrow evening is the BBQ evening.  All of the small courtyards in Palma have BBQ’s where you can walk up and sling your sausage on.  Meeting up with the Jones and Mrs. Jones, Paul and Emma and maybe even Ashley too so could be good fun.  We are even heading off to a part of the town where I know there is a bar with Chimay Blue, so I may even disappear for half an hour.

Tuesday is likely to be Ferry day and I may even bang along the south coast and stop at Antibes, Monaco and San Remo to spread the CV – but then again, I might just head for the sanctuary that is L’Association.

Only time will tell.

I do hope you have all been looking at the photos that I so painstakingly uploaded just to the right of this message you are reading ?

 

 

 

 

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10/01/2012

Back in Europe

By hairygoose

Back stroke, Breast stroke, Butterfly and crawl – doggy paddle, belly flop – you can do them all – LEARN TO SWIM!!!

Ok, so Costa Rica is over and I am back to reality in Mallorca for January.  Please don’t be sad for me, in fact, just to the right hand side of this page is the ‘photos’ section, take a look at the ‘Costa Rica’ section.  It was a jolly good time, with surfing and some scuba diving – I even managed a few short underwater excursions with the Go Pro Hero camera.

And to top it all – I came back a little lighter than when I left, and I am not talking about my wallet.  I have now lost over 13 kgs, thats more than 28 lbs in yank speak or 2 stones in old english money – although my mothers scales suggest a 2 and a half stone loss.  I expect to loose another 6 kgs during my Mallorca trip so expect a skinnier Wayne next time you see me.

It feels good to be working again after my 6 month holiday, using my brain again is very stimulating indeed.  There are a couple of boats around that I am chatting up while I look for something new, I will also be trying my hand in some new secret tactics that I expect to be fruitful.

Anyway – while I am working, go and have a look at my photos of  Costa Rica – click on the photo to go full page and then you can scroll through until your heart is content

 

 

 

 

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28/12/2011

Due North

By hairygoose

Checked my surf wax supply this morning – I am now down to my last half a block, not sure if they sell sex wax here or not so will have to be careful.  Today I am driving North for 3 hours to a dive spot highly recommended by one of my chums in Portugal – I hope it is worth it, the rental car alone was close to 300 dollars, still, a couple of days away will ease the wax situation. Should be back here for the weekend and time to grab the best of the surf before its time to pack up and leave.

My cold is almost gone now, a little bit snotty but at least I can equalise my ears.  To make things even better, the missus is now bed ridden and has been for 2 days after hurting her back.  Apparently the exercise DVD was hard core – from what I saw, by my standards it was soft dough – either way, she is proper fucked and not moving anywhere for the next few days. She has orders to stay in bed until my return on friday evening. If she doesn’t, she is on her own, packing and carrying her bags, loading them on the plane, getting them off at the other end and everything else that is included in travelling – she has been warned.

I took 150,000 out of the bank the other day – that was around 300 dollars. Kind of think you you would drop a few zeros off that figure and carry on as normal – reminiscent of the old italian lira – which may someday soon make a come back.

So the surf here has been fun – not outstanding spectacular but good fun all the same. Better still for the ability to surf in shorts all of the time, any time. There is one problem though, if the sun is out, it is freakin hot – so factor 50 is the order of the day, or a T shirt instead.  The NSP is doing very well.  Shorter than my normal steeds but then I am a couple of stones lighter than normal so that will be helping too.

Enough for now – its time to head to the bank and phone shop once more.

Adios Amigos

 

 

 

 

 

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