Captain's Log
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Helicopters & Halcyon
Monday 27th April 2009
Halcyons helicopter for the day
STORM BOUND
I am writing this Captain’s Log whilst storm bound in Milford Haven. Surprisingly enough our delivery crew joined us on Friday night and we were hoping to be able to leave at early doors Saturday morning to head over to Crosshaven although the weather forecast was looking a bit dodgy. Sure enough as forecast a Force 9 blew up over night and we weren’t going anywhere when I awoke at 5am Saturday morning. One of our veteran crew members, Neville Hopkins, suggested he drive us up to St Ann’s Head so see what we were missing and it really was very wild out there. After just about withstanding the gusts at St Ann’s we then drove over to Jack Sound which was as equally gnarly. So it seemed the best place to be was in a nice pub having lunch in Solva which is exactly what we did.
MILFORD EV ENTS
So, now to fill you in with events whilst we have been in Milford Haven. It’s been a busy time and believe it or not the weather has been very kind to us. On pretty much every day sail with guests that we had, the sun has shone. We haven’t had much wind but we must be thankful for small mercies. We have had some amazing guests on board and it’s been a great pleasure hosting every one of them.
HELICOPTERS & CAMERAS
We were all worrying a little that perhaps the weather might break for our planned 2 days of filming for our promotional DVD. But Monday 20th April was stunning. There was very little wind again but the sun was strong. Our guests joined Halcyon on Sunday evening which offered a sensible lock out time of the marina. We headed up to Dale for a relaxed dinner and a good night’s sleep before the real action began. On Monday morning the helicopter was a little behind schedule due to some fog in London but by 10.30 the film crew in the chase boat were alongside and the helicopter had landed on St Anne’s head and was awaiting instruction to take off. All cameras then started rolling, we had shots of weighing anchor and all the guests getting busy and the sun just kept shining. We managed to get all the sails up even though the wind was light and the helicopter just kept on circling with the film rolling – it was all very exciting.
We then headed over to Jack Sound where we were filmed going through under sail in perfect conditions. Next stop was Musslewick Bay where dropped sails and the anchor, the picnic table was erected and a picnic lunch laid out. Annette was required to do a spot of wakeboarding behind the rib while the guests relaxed drinking wine at the picnic table. Two of our guests were then ribbed ashore to sit on the perfect beach and swim in the surf while the filming continued. Once all the shots had been covered by the helicopter they were then free to go and the chase boat filming continued. Unfortunately Annette had got herself dry and warm and back into hostessing mode when the chase boat then requested another take of her wakeboarding; and so a wet wetsuit was donned and off she went again. Thankfully due to the beautiful warm sun the wet wetsuit didn’t seem so bad to put back on.
In the meantime Andrew & Olly proceeded to jump into the water from Halcyon’s aft deck and go swimming. Swimming without a wetsuit in Pembrokeshire in April is rather brave but I’m sure you now get the idea of exactly what the conditions were like on this particular day. It was a long day and finally filming came to a close until Tuesday so everyone got into relaxed mode, had a hearty dinner and retired to bed rather early.
Day 2 was not so fine weather wise so the film crew who were on board Halcyon filming for the day were going to struggle a little with the light. Luckily because they had so many wonderful shots the day before they were able to focus more on the inside coverage. The master cabin was dressed and Kerri was busy in the galley being instructed to chop and stir when required. A 3 course dinner was then served all for the camera. As the day came to a close we were informed that over 400mins of film had been caught and the crew were very happy with what they had managed to capture. They will then have to edit down to a movie of about 5 mins long. Once this is finished it will be available to see on the website.
So for now I will crack on with jobs on board and wait for a suitable time to depart from Milford. Tuesday is looking good which means we should be safely tied alongside the Royal Cork Yacht Club by Thursday afternoon time….but who knows!