Off to big lump of rock

[Nightcrewman]

Off to this lump of rock The Ailsa Craig just off the west coast of Scotland to set up and operate a radio station for the day 5th August sailing in very small boat with team of 11 people and all our equipment and its forecast to be rough seas, leaving around 5 in morning Oh Joy!!
Anyone interested we will be transmitting the 20 meter band around 14.260 usb and possibly 40 meters around 7.060 lsb, for any hams in cannabis.com
We have been granted permission for one day only as it is a protected nature site.
Cheers (feeling seasick already)
NCM

Ailsa Craig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailsa_Craig)

[Blitzed]

why are you doing it just for 1 day..? Good luck though!

[Nightcrewman]

why are you doing it just for 1 day..? Good luck though!
Its a protected natural heritage site they don't really like people jumping about on it, it took us a while to get permission to go on it there is only one boat licensed to make a landing there, but we are looking forward to it anyway although the boat may not sail if weather is too bad.

Cheers

NCM

[birdgirl73]

Hope you have a tremendously fun time, NCM, and will come back to Mrs. NCM safe and sound after a wonderful adventure. Let us know how it goes!

[Nightcrewman]

Returned safe from big rock, the trip over was fine the sea was flat calm although it started pouring with rain halfway over.
We landed and climbed up to our setup point, a group of old workshops with most of the roof missing (great in the rain) we set up 2 radio stations and managed to operate successfully for around 3 hours when the skipper of our boat phoned across telling us a force 6 was about to spring up and he was coming to get us immediately, it was then panic stations to pack up equipment in a hurry and return down to the jetty with all our gear.
By then the storm was in full flight we took 45 minutes to load the boat in a 6 foot swell and get ourselves on.
The trip back was bad very very bad I have not often been truly terrified in my life but on this occasion you bet I was i thought that the boat was a gonner on several big waves, but we made it and despite the weather and the terror I throughly enjoyed the challenge. I would have liked more time to operate the radio stations though as we were run of our feet with people trying to contact us.
I'll post some pics later.

Cheers

NCM (now dried out)

[birdgirl73]

Glad you made it back. Sounds like quite an adventure. I know Mrs. NCM was glad for you to return safely, too!

[napolitana869]

the trip back sounds absolutely terrifying. I'm glad you had a good time while you were there though.

[partyguy420]

that sounds fucking fun... ive always wanted to go to a big rock in the middle of the ocean... or something like that...

[Nightcrewman]

Here is a few pics taken on our trip.
Pic 1 Myself (blue waterproofs and several layers of clothes) and fellow traveler first to arrive on jetty as usual.
Pic 2 Crammed onto very small boat with some of our equipment waiting on rest to arrive.
Pic 3 Approaching Ailsa Craig island.
Pic 4 Old workshops where we were to operate station from, note lack of roofing.
Pic 5 A bit wet! had to construct gazebo inside the building to help us stay dry.

Unfortunately no one on the return boat journey was brave enough to photograph or video just how stormy and dangerous it was we were all to busy hanging on to the boat.