Vince Williams and Jon Goodson opened our season for us with a very informative and entertaining presentation about the “Idle Women” of the Grand Union Canal.  Vince and John told, to a full club room, how the “Idle Women” came to be. How in the war years, amidst great danger they ran the narrow boats down the canal between Birmingham and London. Often carrying munitions. They had a modest amount of training yet needed great skill and strength to manage the boats. Their conditions wer...

Planning for our Autumn programme is well underway and nearly completed.
The programme for January - March 2010 is also taking shape. If anyone is interested in joining our club please contact us via our contact link.

Andy & Nicky Gibb have sailed their boat Intrepid of Dover, a 40 ft Westerly Oceanlord across the Atlantic 3 times and completed a circumnavigation in 2007.

They sail with family and friends who join and leave the boat at various stages.

Nicky graphically and enthusiastically described how they sailed one of these stages across the Pacific Ocean. Their route was through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos, then to Marquesas, Tahiti, Samoa, other Pacific Islands and on to Australia. She told of t...

Follow this link here to The Radio Controlled Laser. Not a cruising boat by any means but looks like good fun. Perhaps something to stick on the boat and bring home for the winter. Growing like topsy - good fun for all the family.

Click any item on the right hand side either under Tags, Categories, Recent Posts, Blog Archive or Blog Roll.
so if you  click on weather you get weather. If you click on links you will get canal,weather and this post links plus others as they are added.

The other way is to enter a search term in the search facility at the top of the blog page then click on search!

This, the last meeting of 2008 is an oppportunity to meet up for a Natter & Noggin and look forward to 2009.
There will be a small charge of £5 per head. Menu: Pork baps with apple sauce/seasoning and vegetarian quiche, onions and pickles. Pavlova, trifle and mince pies followed by coffee and mints.To keep us entertained Alan is organising a "nautical" Beetle Drive and to round off the night there will be a mystery raffle. Everyone is encourage to bring a long a small prize wrapped up so no o...

Here are some fantastic weather links:

UK wind maps http://www.xcweather.co.uk/
UK Metcheck http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/HOME/
UK Rain radar http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/
Live Lightning http://www.isleofwightweather.co.uk/live_storm_data.htm
Midlands  weather  http://www.midlandsweather.org.uk/
Satellite weather maps http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/satpics/latest_uk_ir.html
Further links to Meteosat sites      http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/meteosat/infos.shtml  
Metrology & weather radar ...

Do you have a question relating to boat electrics that Ron can address at our next meeting? If so email here or use the contact menu, your question will be passed on to Ron and he will try to include your topic.

There's a really comprehensive description at Wikipedia for AIS but in addition there's lots of other very interesting information on the Internet: have a look at the information available for the Solent area at Solent Ship Tracking. This superb site is well worth a look for other information as well!! Another good one is Lands End Live which shows you which ships are currently rounding Lands End. For UK information and a complete view, by map, of the UK have a look at ShipAIS - Watching the ...

There are some enhancements to the blog! At the top you will now see a blog search: this is really obvious - just enter your search and the search will show you any MCCC blogs containing your search. It will also have a look at the Internet and give you other relevant links.

At the bottom of the blog page we now have a blogroll - this is really a list of links but will only show blogs of interest.

Please note every Blog can be commented on. Please add your thoughts. Have a look at the bottom of each post.

Tuesday  saw a very welcome return of Mike Streets and Chris Bassam to MCCC. Mike and Chris have now had six years cruising in the Caribbean and during that time have covered the area in great depth. 

We heard some fascinating details of life out there living amongst the Islands: how often entering each island requires entry and exit formalities to be completed as they are often different countries. Members were given some good tips about anchoring and how in all those years Mike and Chris ha...

Welcome to our Members Blog! At first site you may find this a bit daunting but please have patience as it's pretty slick! Blogs of interest will be posted from time to time and they will appear down the left hand side of the page. This will be developed as the interest materialises and people get the hang of it. It is possible using the Tags and Categories to sort the blogs as you like. Try it out!

Members are invited to comment on any blog and comments will appear on this page once they ha...

We now have a guest book in place on the Home page. I think it would be a good idea if we leave this for none members to use. I'll sort out a members book for this page shortly. Watch this space.

Welcome to our new website!
Please use the form, link at the top of the page, to send any ideas for inclusion on the website and any ideas for next years speakers.