[John Robertson Posts: 5137 Status: Offline WWW]

Last hover trip for March - hopefully the scenery will be green the next time I'm on the river, I'm getting tired of grey and brown  !

It was pretty cold -  even though the it was supposed to be 5C it felt like -5C (an easterly wind coming in from the sea and the lack of sunshine certainly didn't help).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h7qissxUSk#

[John Robertson Posts: 5137 Status: Offline WWW]

Little solo trip today.  River level was about a foot lower than last week.  Temperature was almost in double figures but it actually still felt pretty cold.  You guys must be intimately familiar with this river by now  - if there are any bits of the river bank you'd like to see then just let me know and I'll make sure I cover it next time 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqSbTuQ9MBc#

[Nick Flint Posts: 4870 Status: Offline]

Yes Steve, WHY do you think MY posts are faultless in content and spelching. If only JR could organise LIFE to have a "modify" button for things already said. Come on JR, stop messin about and sort it out for us. gnf

[Steve Holland Posts: 1583 Status: Offline]

Oh, I see what youve done there !!

[Nick Flint Posts: 4870 Status: Offline]

No you havent Steve gnf

[Steve Holland Posts: 1583 Status: Offline]

I've spelled 'of' wrong....the shame

PS should mention John saw a fox along side the river and I was also impressed with the quantity of Dabchicks that I saw. We were collectively impressed with salmon that were leaping out of the water, very entertaining as were the weirs that we navigated one of which was......large!!!! wish we had film of that one.

[Nick Flint Posts: 4870 Status: Offline]

Birds of prey are really taking off ( ) over the French motorway systems with more each year spotted on our way down, perhaps looking for road kill to save on all that "Flapping". This time total of 60 over our two day leisurely trundle. Most with a balloon coming out of their beak. On closer inspection they mainly read; "Tweet Bloody Tweet" We were not surprised as it is Siberia city over most of Europe. To see wildlife in its natural environment is a delight even when they are depressed gnf

[Steve Holland Posts: 1583 Status: Offline]

It was a great run mostly around 15mph but on a couple of unpopulated bits even Alice Mary hit 36mph. Highlight was seeing an Otter scurry down the bank opposite where we had our tea and sandwiches (and Jenny's home made soup) as well as a Peregrine sitting on a cliiff face a few metres above the water, it never even took off !!!!

PS sleet stings your face even with a windscreen .

[John Robertson Posts: 5137 Status: Offline WWW]

Mostly cruise speed is around 12-15mph - any faster is anti-social, dangerous and means you miss stuff.  Which would defeat the whole point of cruising - it isn't a race!  Ther was a bit of engine-clean out going on at around 6:20 on a 2 mile open (and devoid of wildlife/people/houses)0 just upstream of Berwick (the answer is off the end of the speedo dial  ).

[Nick Flint Posts: 4870 Status: Offline]

A fair old speed there, but I suppose it does look a little faster on water, but looking really good all round, gnf

[John Robertson Posts: 5137 Status: Offline WWW]

We got up to Kelso and over the big weir in the centre.  There was horse racing going on on the bank so it wasn't worth going further.

[Trev Posts: 1485 Status: Offline WWW]

Nice trip John , how far up the river did you go ?
good to see the 3 craft out , looks like the Otter is going well

[John Robertson Posts: 5137 Status: Offline WWW]

River was busy today with three hovercraft  .  Steve, Matt and I spent five hours cruising on the river Tweed.  It was pretty cold (about 2.5C) and was windy when we started out this morning but conditions (but not the temperature!) improved a bit but ended up sleeting later (the wind chill was pretty ferocious!).  No problems apart from a mis-judged weir going downstream - I ended up going over (and into!) the centre concrete gully  - thank god for a decent hover-height, a couple of glancing bumps and all was OK even though it looked pretty bad!  Needless to say, the others chose a different route down the weir .


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rB9kmeu7qg#