May Bumps 2009
Submitted by chris on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 22:19.
There are few better ways to spend a sunny summer afternoon in Cambridge than with old friends at the May Bumps, the inter-college races held at the end of the year - in typical Cambridge fashion, the May Bumps are in June. In brief, boats start spaced out on the river, and the objective is simply to catch (and sometimes literally bump) the boat in front. Many of the photos here are of the Selwyn boats, that being my college.
Hi-res versions of the photos are available on request!
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And the winner is...
Submitted by chris on Tue, 06/09/2009 - 09:53.And the winner is... meh. The clear, outright winner of both the recent elections is anger, apathy and alienation. Most people just didn't turn up.
At first glance, the results look good for the Conservatives, especially in the local elections. Having taken nearly 65% of the council seats on offer, you might think that David Cameron's feeling a bit smug about now - but I doubt it. The fact is that support for the Tories has not moved - in fact, in the European elections, they actually lost 250,000 votes relative to last time. And in fact, here is the key. The results look good for the Conservatives only because they look stunningly *bad* for Labour, by any metric. The local election was a wipe-out - Labour didn't hold a single council, and lost more than half their councillors. They have had their worst result in Europe ever by a large margin, with just 16% of the vote.
Much has been made of the BNP's success, and while the sight of Nick Griffon mugging on TV is profoundly depressing, this too flatters to deceive - the actual number of votes for the racists barely moved. The real winner is the blank space where people didn't turn out. If this was a General Election, and the Staying In Bed party was standing, they would have won a massive majority. Just see the attached chart - that huge gap at the bottom is the anger of the majority of the UK, over corruption and in-fighting in Westminster, unemployment and the cost of living. Naturally, this hits the party in power the hardest - they are the ones viewed as having let things get into this state!
Sadly, the Lib Dems seem to have received some ricochets from this - their results were ok (Bristol, for example), but not any kind of breakthrough. This is partly due to reflected damage from the expenses row, despite coming out fairly clean - but probably mostly due to the recession. Perhaps it is harder to sell liberal, progressive policies when people are worried about losing their jobs.
And Brown?
Gordon Brown survives to fight another day. Despite the (rather muddled and disorganised) resignations, and dire election results, the fact is that the parliamentary Labour party can see no improvement from changing leader 11 months before the upcoming general election. Things might have been different if the cabinet resignations had been coordinated and managed - but more likely it turned out this way because the runners are hanging back, anticipating a Conservative win in the General Election - there's not much point in being Prime Minister now, when a better option would be to run afterwards and be relatively untainted by the loss (not looking any Miliband in particular).
Incidentally, why is it so difficult to find comprehensive percentages for the local elections? or even a turnout figure?
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Vote!
Submitted by chris on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 10:59.It's election day again here in the UK - not a General Election, for the national parliament, but elections for local councils and the European Parliament. Predictions for turnout vary wildly - from 25% to 50% - but people have been somewhat energised by the recent expenses scandal at Westminster, and so may well turn out in large numbers to lodge protest votes.
This is likely to benefit smaller parties, that are seen as less corrupt - especially compared to Labour and the Conservatives, which have each had multiple resignations over expenses. Sadly this is likely to work in favour of some unpleasant radical parties, such as the BNP, and anti-EU parties such as UKIP.
It is possible that a spectacularly bad result for Labour (looking fairly likely) could combine with the recent resignations from the Cabinet to finally force Gordon Brown's hand. A general election is not inevitable just yet, as Brown has held on in rough conditions previously, but this could get interesting.
In any case, it's time to stand up and be counted. Vote for who you believe in, and for policies you think are right - not just a 'all politicians are scum' protest vote. Personally, I'm backing the Lib Dems - I support most of their policies, and they have come out of the expenses scandal looking pretty good.
And for those interested in watching the results, the BBC are running handy results tables and maps here.
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East Coast Sailing
Submitted by chris on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 08:49.
Another fun* weekend's sailing on the East Coast, despite a slightly greater than usual amount of faff getting the trip organised.
The crew consisted of sailing novices, including a couple of non-sailing friends, plus Phil, one of the other club skippers. On the Friday, we all made our way to Ipswich without much incident and had a tasty dinner (thanks to Phil, who got there early). Sadly we then had to go shopping, due to Tesco being useless and refusing to deliver to the marina - with the result that everyone was pretty tired before we'd even gone anywhere!
On Saturday we had a pretty relaxed start, as (due to wind and tide) I'd decided to go north towards Lowestoft, rather than south to Burnham-on-Crouch - so we didn't have to get up early for the tide. After an interesting moment in the lock on the way out, where the stern line got jammed, we had a gentle cruise down the river towards the sea. Raising sail half-way down also gave the crew an opportunity to get familiar with the sails in sheltered conditions - much tacking involved!
Once out of the river, we had a lovely sail up the coast, in near ideal conditions for novices, and sandwiches for lunch :-) After lunch we had an unexpected guest arrive - Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs! A couple of officers came on board from a RIB while the cutter stood off a few hundred meters, had a look around, to a swab, and people's details. All very friendly and civilised, and they went on their way fairly shortly.
Later in the afternoon, the wind picked up to 25 knots, and the sea got a bit bumpier. This got a bit tough on the novices, with one being unfortunate enough to become very seasick. After getting in to Lowestoft at 8:30pm or so, some of the crew were very happy to be on solid ground... especially with the excellent dinner prepared by Silke.
To catch the tide, we made a 6am start the next morning - sadly, without the seasick crew member who decided not to risk it again. In fact, the conditions were smooth and calm - we ended up motoring for 5 hours on a flat sea. The crew seemed pretty happy with this, despite the lack of sailing; at least we got a nice view of Sizewell B Nuclear power station!
Fortunately the wind picked up enough to sail in the early afternoon, so we had a very pleasant 4 hours or so sailing off Felixtowe, Harwich and the Walton backwaters, watching a racing fleet go past; plus a very gentle down-wind run run upriver to Ipswich.
*except when seasick...
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Spring in the Cyclades
Submitted by chris on Mon, 04/06/2009 - 22:24.
There are few better ways to spend a week in spring that sailing the Cyclades islands in Greece, in a pair of Sun Odyssey 35s. After a an overnight stay in Athens on the Friday night, and a tour around the Acropolis, we picked up the boats at Poros on Saturday and headed for Merikha on Kithnos. This was a pleasant enough village, but not especially attractive. The next morning, despite the lack of wind, we headed to Livadhi on Serifos. This is much prettier, and affords a good walk up the hill to an impressive view from the top of the old village.
The following day we crossed to Finikas on Sifos, for lunch and a swim, and then randomly decided to head for Delos. The plan was to moor up there and explore the ancient ruins there in the morning, but a rising wind, shallow water and a somewhat unpleasant industrial feel put us off, and we anchored in a deserted bay in Rinia instead.
The following day the wind had dropped again, so we ended up motoring most of the way to Ermoupolis on Sifos. This is the capital of the Cyclades, and a very attractive town, with surprisingly friendly dogs, but very little water - it took us several frustrating hours to refill the yachts! The morning after we headed back to Kithnos, and had a great day's sailing, despite tearing the mainsail. To balance that, we had the company of a pod of dolphins along the way.
From Kithnos we crossed to Idra, possibly the most attractive island and town, where the main mode of transport are mules, rather than motors. Sadly, my camera did not survive the bumpy crossing, hence the lack of photos for this or the return leg to Poros the following day.
All in all, a great trip with a great bunch of CUY folks, in an idyllic set of islands.
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Go East, to Brighton
Submitted by chris on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 00:17..thumbnail.jpg "Go East, to Brighton: 24 Items")
To celebrate the Chinese New Year, or just for fun, I randomly signed up for some January sailing with the CUY yacht Kestrel. We arrived at Swanwick Marina on the Hamble near Southampton, on Friday night, and set off to sea at around midnight. With good sailing conditions, we had a fast, if rather chilly, run to Brighton, making landfall at around 8am.
The view from Brighton marina wasn't particularly inspiring, so we set off back to the Solent before 11am. The fast turnaround was also encouraged by the weather forecast - borne out by the cloud and rising wind that reached us just as we arrived at Portsmouth. We overnighted at Gunwharf Quay, right under the Spinnaker Tower near the centre of the city.
On Sunday, the weather had largely calmed down again, and we had a (mostly) relaxed and pleasant day's sailing around the Solent - even getting the spinnaker up for the run home to the Hamble!
Christmas in Ireland, Roundup
Submitted by chris on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 00:05.
A collection of random photos from Christmas and New Year in Ireland - mostly from walking in Donegal. I haven't really had time to sort and process these, but they may have some interest.
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Slieve Snaght
Submitted by chris on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 22:00.
Another lovely frosty day, and this time it's a mountain rather than a lake! We decided on a family trip to Slieve Snaght, the highest 'mountain' on Innishowen in north-west Ireland at 678m. In Ireland, this is a fair-sized mountain! The name comes from gaelic 'Sliabh Sneacht', or Snowy Mountain, and it lived up to it in spirit if not in fact - the moors and slopes were coated in frost and ice.
Inch Lake in the frost
Submitted by chris on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 21:40.
A stroll along the shore of Inch lake, on a beautifully crisp and frosty winter's afternoon. Inch island sits in the Swilly, a long fjord-like inlet in Donegal, near Derry/Londonderry - it is connected to the mainland by two dams, with the lake being formed by the stretch of water in between.
The route taken follows the mainland shore of the lake, down past the southern dam and briefly along the Swilly proper. In the distance can be seen the ruins of Inch Castle (15th centrury), and, on the rounded hill, Burt Castle (16th century)
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Coastal Skipper!
Submitted by chris on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 21:28.
Finally, I've got round to doing my RYA Coastal Skipper exam! After 4 years' sailing with CUY, I set aside a week's holiday for an excellent practical training course, run by the main club instructor, Hywel. The course covered an impressive range and detail, and was great fun to boot, despite the weather. In fact, the training turned out to be rather more intense than the exam, despite (or possibly in some way due to) winds gusting force 8 on the exam day!
In any case, a very successful week, with the result that I finally have my Coastal Skipper, and can look forward to running my own trips :-)
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