Shipping Forecast Caches

[+Jango & Boba Fett]

It just occurred to me that from january I will be working fairly close to one of my all time favourite places (or at least favourite place names), Machrihanish. To me it conjures up memories of staying up as a child to hear the shipping forecast and all those magical names, Viking, Dogger Bank, St Catherine's Point, Valentia, ...

 

So I thought here's an opportunity to place some caches which have nothing to do with motorways, A-roads or service stations. But is there anyone else out there who is in a position to join in, and more to the point are there any folks out there who fancy searching for a cache in Tiree, Stornoway, Lerwick, Fair Isle, Wick, Leuchers, Malin Head, Valley, Finisterre ...

 

[+The Golem]

Sounds like a plan - it's got be better than those Motorway Mayhem thingies.

 

If you're in that neck of the woods Jango, you could perhaps look out for some of Billy Twigger's caches as they're not a million miles away - I know one or two of them are in need of a bit of TLC...

 

You could hide a few caches on the Uists while you're about it - it's a bit of a desert out there.

[+Team Ballibeg]

Good to see another cacher in Argyll! There's a dearth of caches in Kintyre so bring boxes!

 

Dave

[+The Forester]

There's a geocache at Sea Area Forth already.

 

It's located right in front of the window of HMCG station Fifeness, though tucked away out of sight.

[+Jango & Boba Fett]

Thanks Forester for the info on Eastern Kingdom, which means that Coastal station Fife Ness is already covered. I've also had a couple of emails from other coastal cachers, so I might go ahead and set up a simple home page listing all the sea areas, coastal stations etc. Any ideas for a name, Attention All Shipping , Coastal Chaos , Maritime Madness

[+The Forester]

Any ideas for a name

 

How about "Sailing By". It's the name of that tune they play on R4 just before the Shipping Forecast at the crack of sparrow's fart in the morning.

[+Simply Paul]

For those who remember Peter Serafinowicz in Black Books, I can only say, "Fwan?"

[Alan White]

A great idea. There'd be some challenging caches there, especially as some of the sea areas don't have any land

 

One of my all-time favourite books is Attention All Shipping - A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly. Recommended - and amusing - reading for anyone interested in the shipping forecast.

 

That map's a bit out of date. Finisterre was renamed FitzRoy in February 2002 in honour of Captain Robert FitzRoy, "...the man who founded the Meteorological Office and the man directly responsible for the shipping forecast we know today". And don't forget sea area Trafalgar.

 

And didn't Simply Paul once mention a cache on Rockall?

[+Boardslider]

I think Lundy is pretty well covered Not that I've been to any of them. There is also one on Tiree, which doesn't get many visits.

[+Boardslider]

Any ideas for a name

 

How about "Sailing By". It's the name of that tune they play on R4 just before the Shipping Forecast at the crack of sparrow's fart in the morning.

 

<PEDANT>

 

Sailing by is played just before closedown at night - until recently the 'sparrows fart' music was 'the Radio 4 UK theme' based on a medley created by Fritz Speigle (I for one miss it).

 

</PEDANT>

[NickPick]

I think it's a great idea too, although, since Hertfordshire is about as far away from the sae as it's possible to get, I'm afraind that I can't offer to help with a cache.

 

A great idea. There'd be some challenging caches there, especially as some of the sea areas don't have any land

 

One of my all-time favourite books is Attention All Shipping - A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly. Recommended - and amusing - reading for anyone interested in the shipping forecast.

 

 

When i saw the topic, I thought of this book too. I'm currently about 3/4 the way through reading it. It's great!

[+Team Madders]

"Maughold Head" (GCVX12 - Isle of Man, Irish Sea) - has a nice use of the Shipping Forecast:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...85-2048a4de4b35

[+Alibags]

I could place a Tyne one at Christmas if I can work out some maintenance arrangements, but I am not swimming out to the Dogger Bank!

 

As an aside, a friend of mine is called Tiree after the shipping forcast area. We always said, could have been worse... could have been German Bight!

[+Pharisee]

As an aside, a friend of mine is called Tiree after the shipping forcast area. We always said, could have been worse... could have been German Bight!

 

My wife has a niece named 'Trogon' after some sort of Amazonian woodpecker

 

I'm quite glad my folks named me 'John'.... 'cos everyone else does

[+Bambi&Thumper]

I could place a Tyne one at Christmas if I can work out some maintenance arrangements, but I am not swimming out to the Dogger Bank!

 

As an aside, a friend of mine is called Tiree after the shipping forcast area. We always said, could have been worse... could have been German Bight!

 

I think we could probably lend a hand there if you are desperate (and depending exactly where you plonk it!).

 

B.

[+Teuchters]

I can do Cromarty.....

I just need to avoid the Croms (local joke)

[+Norwegian Blue]

I'm currently sat in the middle of the Forties forcast area. (N 58 13.5 E 00106.4) If I dropped one off here it would certainly be a 5/5

[+Jango & Boba Fett]

I'm currently sat in the middle of the Forties forcast area. (N 58 13.5 E 00106.4) If I dropped one off here it would certainly be a 5/5

What about an Earthcache, I'm sure this counts as a Historical geological Site.

 

[+Norwegian Blue]

Nice piccie of the Forties Alpha! I'm actually at the nearby Balmoral platform plumbing in a new oil pipeline.

 

I'd consider it in order to plug any gaps if this series takes off. I certainly get around them all on this side of the U.K. and it would be nice to have a few more "seafarer friendly" caches.

 

BTW If you live in a port area a "seafarer friendly" cache would be one which is situated within a couple of miles (at the very most) of the docks due to the fact that most of us only have a few hours free time in which to cache and very limited transport.

e.g. The Maritime Trail caches in Aberdeen are excellent examples.

[Lactodorum]

I'd consider it in order to plug any gaps if this series takes off. I certainly get around them all on this side of the U.K.

 

As long as you are in a position to maintain them for a minimum of three months these would be very "interesting" caches. I'm assuming the platform owners will be happy to welcome the usual rabble of itinierant geocachers popping in unannounced from time to time !!

Edited December 24, 2006 by Lactodorum

[+The Bongtwashes]

. I'm assuming the platform owners will be happy to welcome the usual rabble of itinierant geocachers popping in unannounced from time to time !!

Does this mean we all have to go on the relevant H&S and induction courses? :)

[+Jango & Boba Fett]

. I'm assuming the platform owners will be happy to welcome the usual rabble of itinierant geocachers popping in unannounced from time to time !!

Does this mean we all have to go on the relevant H&S and induction courses?

Not sure what you need to visit these caches which are on a variety of (ex)nuclear facilities:

• Juliet 484 (GCMZ84P)
  
• Tube Torcher (GC3CC9)
  
• Nuclear Missile Silo Complex (GCM3G7)
  
• Batum Missle Complex (GCJ65J)
  

Mind you I remember spending Christmas Day 1992 lugging yellow Trimble boxes up onto Helidecks on various platforms around the Gulf of Suez - I think there is even a photo somewhere ...

[+The Forester]

lugging yellow Trimble boxes up onto Helidecks on various platforms around the Gulf of Suez

 

Oops! I hope you didn't find any grollies in any of the co-ords I derived and listed for the platforms there. I did the original(?) surveys of several of the platforms in the Morgan, July, October, Ramadan, Zeit etc fields.

 

My excuse(s): I was using crappy old co-ords on Helmert's Red Belt, with doggie old MiniRangers for EDM , which I calibrated with a rusty screwdriver on baselines which were originally measured by the famous Peter 'Creepie" Crawley and occasionally I had to accept two-range fixing. About half a dozen of them were done, by me at least, with nothing more than double angle sextant resection to other platfoms which in turn had been done by Creepie Crawley on a bad day.

 

Whenever I had an opportunity to lug an MX1502 up for a couple of days to do a translocation fix atop one of those jackets after they were piled in by a McDimwits barge, I found that the coords were decidedly dodgy.

[+Norwegian Blue]

When did McD*****s ever put a jacket where they were asked?

That's why they put spool pieces on the end of pipelines isn't it?

 

As for setting caches out here to cover the forecast areas, I'd have to have a think about how I'd be able to set them so they were available to everyone, particularly those without an offshore medical certificate, valid offshore basic safety induction and survival course, Vantage number and Individual Employer Induction

 

BTW Merry Christmas from the Dive Support Vessel "CSO Orelia" within the 500m Safety Zone of the Balmoral platform

[+Jango & Boba Fett]

... were originally measured by the famous Peter 'Creepie" Crawley and occasionally I had to accept two-range fixing. About half a dozen of them were done, by me at least, with nothing more than double angle sextant resection to other platfoms which in turn had been done by Creepie Crawley on a bad day.

Ah peter Crawley the ultimate snakeoil salesman, he was still writing memos to GUPCO in the early 90s demonstrating that his S650 Helmert coordinates were spot on and Decca's dual frequency long baseline network was didtinctly dodgy. Mind you I did have the honour of attending the garage sale when the Pico Survey Ras Gharib base closed down for good.

 

As for McD**** I've never met a finer bunch of Coon A***s in all my life! Ho, Ho, Ho

 

Must be off to work on my Earthcache Description for 57º 35.800' North, 013º 41.317' West

[+PurplePenguin]

One of our caches - There are Warnings of Gales... GCW7PP is a homage to the shipping forecast as a whole. P of PP