Back home....... unfortunately! Part the third

The last adventure on my US tyrip this year involved ......

All these......

Two of these....

A missing one of these......

Lots of this......

And this.

After getting back to Illinois I was detailed to drive Ray's little red car, above, to New Mexico whilst Ray and Dave drove his truck with the rock crawling jeep on a trailer and Karen and the ladies, Terri and Ildi, took her Honda.

All went well for the first half hour when we needed to stop for breakfast. This after a late start as Ray realised that he had lost his cell phone the previous evening. Not a great omen.

Things after that seemed to go well and we made good time through Illinois and Missouri until just outside Joplin when one of the tyres on the jeep trailer blew out. Luckily Ray is an organised chap and had all the necessary tools and spares to complete a tyre change in a few minutes. An F1 team couldn't have been slicker than Dave and myself. Problem being that when the tyres were checked and inflated the day before the spare was not checked. No big problem, just needed some air.

Pulled off at the next junction and inflated the tyre. Luckily there was a little garage there which sold used tyres and Ray managed to purchase a replacement. Well not really purchase, more like had one donated as it was very ropey and almost repaired but would do in case of an emergency.

Good job too as no more than 5 miles down the road the spare blew too. Another quick tyre change and a crawl on the very dodgy replacement to Joplin. All good plans come a cropper and before we reached Joplin the spare spare blew also. Dumped the truck and Jeep in a car park and went to buy two new tyres.

Joplin, awaiting a replacement.

Stayed the night, and fortunately the next day was greatly uneventful. Texas is very flat and boring as the picture shows. Never noticed before but when you are following a truck and trailer and cannot get much beyond 65mph in a little Merceded you have lots of time to 'enjoy' the scenery.

The PODS delivery system was pretty slick. They deliver it to your home, you load, they ship and you unload. What took 3 days to load in Illinois was emptied in 3 hours in New Mexico.

The unloading crew of Ray, Karen, Terri, Ildi, and Dave were great fun to be with and the whole week was great fun with lots of laughter and a great time was had by all. Thanks guys.

As a house warming gift we found some herb wands that were supposed to chase out any negative vibes in your home. Talked Ray and Karen into burning these and walking them through the whole house and garden.



Not sure if ther really worked but they sure stunk the place out. Although some people witt smoke just about anything.

Again guys, thanks for a great time and I hope to be back there sometime soon.

Back home....... unfortunately! Part 2

Had a great weekend with my sister Sheelagh and her children Conor 6 and Kate 4. I had forgotten how lively little children can be and was quickly reminded of this fact.

Weather was good so that all the sporting activities for them went ahead from 'flag' football, which is like touch rugby for the little ones. Seeing as american football is all about playing catch and trying to stop the oppositin from getting anywhere near the ball I struggled to understand the concept of having a flag tied loosely to the waist to be ripped off. A non-contact version of a truly violent game.

Saturday was a sport I could relate to, soccer as they quaintly call football, played by little kids is the same the world over. Everyone chases the ball and just kicks the hell out of the thing. Great fun and I have seen this done on 6 continents, truly a world game. Sadly the sport seems to be dropped before the kids get to be 16 as all the focus is on the parochial games of american football, baseball and basketball whose 'world' champions all happen to be from the US.

We stopped at a garage sale on the way home from the 'soccer' field and picked up a fusball table for 10 bucks, a true bargain.

Kate and the Football table

As it was the week before halloween and also Kate's birthday there was a lot of excitement and dressing up for parties. Kate had a fairy princess costume and Conor was a spy and looking very cool.

The Princess and the Spy.

Monday lunchtime it was back on the train to return to Morton, Il. Again I was not impressed with the running of the Amtrak service. I wrote the following while stuck in Albany:

Travelling back to Morton, Illinois I realised that the railways in Britain are not so bad after all. The clowns that run Amtrak do so for the benefit of the crew not the passengers. Either that or the crew are blindly following orders without question, and we all know where actions like that end up!

When boarding the train tickets are checked for destination and you are told which car to sit in, choice of seat is then up to the passenger. When tickets are collected a little slip of paper is poked into the overhead luggage rack stating your destination. The ticket collector seemed to get a bit upset when I swapped seats when a pair became available as this seemed to confuse him. Seems that you gotta stay put! So much for land of the free! can't even freely move around a train!

Unfortunately they seem to want to fill one car at atime as when I went to the 'cafe' car there was acompletely empty coach. I asked the crew if they could explain why and they told me that it would come off at Albany. Fair enough but why were the passengers for Albany not in that one but filling up the other coaches? Couldn't answer me and just kept saying that the car would be coming off at Albany and I was to stay in the seat for the entire trip as there would be no chance to change seat. Didn't quite understand that one either.

On reaching Albany they wandered through muttering something about getting off. Didn't quite catch it and if it was a train announcement then why not use the intercom, unless they couldn't figure out how it worked as on the way out I was woken pre-dawn by somebody hollering through it that breakfast would be served. After about 10 mins the train pulled out, travelled about 200yde, just enough to clear the platform and stopped. The lights went out. Guard cane through and stated that the train would stay here until 7:05, 1 hour and 45 mins and the lights would come on shortly as a couple of cars were being removed and replaced. Why they couldn't do this in the station and let passengers off for the duration is again beyond me. It is not a sif there was no room as there are 4 platforms and not a single train passed as we sat there doing nothing.

After all that we then reversed back into the station and left 25 minutes late.

Sorry British Rail, or whatever you are called these days, all is forgiven.

Back home....... unfortunately!

Arrived back home last week after a long journey from Alberquerque via Chicago and London that took a couple of days. Since my last post I was all over the states .....

.... scene fades to show rememberances of past events......


..... After the crash landing of the balloon we upped stakes and returned to Illinois. This year we decided to go the northern route through Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and then south into Peoria. This was so we could see the rockies but as with lots of great ideas the weather did not co-operate and the mountains were hidden behind a veil of clouds, rain and mist. Have to go another time.

Nebraska and Iowa are flat and boring. Drove through wind and rain on a journey best forgotten.

Back in Morton Ray had his second PODS removal cube delivered and we then spent three days loading all the crap, oops sorry, stuff onto it that was going to be shipped to his and Karen's new house that they bought while ballooning in Albq.

With this completed I decided to go on another trip to visit my sister in Massachucettes using Amtrak the US rail network.

26 hours on a bloody train. Seats were OK but nothing special and space was at a premium as there seemed to be just enough of them for the passengers who were herded into set coaches at the whim of the conductors, about 6 of them. Seems that even though there were no seat assignments as such one could not sit where one liked as passengers for certain destinations had to sit in assigned coaches. When asked why the reason given was so that the conductors knew where people were but still put little pieces of paper on the luggage racks saying the destination. Totally illogical, but that is the us for you.

Odd thing happened in Erie, Indiana. After being woken by a wailing banshee announcing breakfast was being served at some ungodly hour pre-dawn, I was accosted by a guy in a brown uniform asking if I was a US citizen, the conversation went as follows:

Brown shirt: Are you a US citizen?
Me: No.
BS: Do you have a passport?
Me: Of course! (thinks: What a dumb question! How the hell would I be here otherwise)
BS: Can I see it?
Me: Who are you?
BS: Border Patrol!
Me: (sounding confused) Have we crossed a border or something?
BS: No just a check!
Me: (hands over passport) So if I had just said 'yes' you wouldn't have gone any further? ( he had been ignoring anybody who said that they were a US citizen)
BS: No I would have been able to tell from the accent! (returned passport after close scrutiny of the data page but not of the visa stamp)

Still not sure what that was all about, maybe somebody had snuck over the Canadian border and jumped on a moving train during the night. Must be bloody desperate to escape from the economic depression of Canada for the so called land of the free!

Rest of the journey uneventful although as we went deeped into New England the scenery became better as the leaves were turning beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red.

Will be doing the catching up in installments... so keep checking back!

A GREAT but sad day..

Had a wonderful day today. Found out that after 1 year 11 months and 6 days my decree nisi was finally granted yeaterday at 10am BST. I am finally officially a divorced man, just need to sell the bloody house, pay her off and I will be free.


Following that we went flying at the fiesta. Winds were picking up so we went off field, as it was special shapes day on field, and set up and flew quickly. I was in the basket with Kelly and Keith the pilot.

Had a nice slow pass of the field at around 5mph and saw some of the stragglers taking off.

Wells Fargo Stagecoach over Fiesta field

Flew on over the Rio Grande and splashed down just north of the little island in the middle. Current was pretty fast as well as airspeed picking up, we hit the water at around 11mph which ammounts to a lot of inertia in a 90,000 cubic feet balloon. First time I have hit a riverbed in a balloon.

Rio Grande, set down just north of the little island.

Managed to get water.....

and riverbed in the basket.

Flew over a maize maze set out in a field with the shape of a balloon as part of the path.

Maize maze.

Headed for Rio Rancho, north of Albuquerque for a landing. Wind was now getting up which leads to a hell of an exciting landing. Came in at around 30mph and just missed a house as we came a bit low, had to burn to rise above the roof and must have missed the chimney by inches as the owner was standing there waving and taking photos. Not sure if they were for fun or in case of an insurance claim. Hit the ground and bounced and dragged a good 20 yards with lots of other peoples crew hanging on to stop us. Balloons were laid out all over the area after lots of hard landings.

After landing.

Unfortunately there were some accidents due to the wind speeds. A young lad was caught in one of the lines and dragged by the neck for about 20 yards right next to our landing site, he was taken off to hospital. A worse accident occurred about a half mile away from us where a basket was caught in some power lines and the propane hoses were ruptured. The basket caught on fire and the pilot was thrown out to his death whilst the passenger hit the ground and sustained multiple broken bones. All balloonist's thoughts go out to all the families involved.

George Hahn, a pilot in the same launch square as us has taken what is commonly known as a cattle car, a large basket from a ride balloon, and mounted it on a truck chassis to make a vehicle for running around the field.

A cattle car on wheels.

As this is probably the last day for flying due to inclement weather coming in overnight we had the Sky Angle crew photo.

Bill, Tina (SkyAngel herself and crew chief), Dennis (tame weatherman), Keith (pilot), Kelly, me, Ray.

All in it has been another great week down in Albuquerque, thanks to all who have made it such an enjoyable time. Back to Illinois tomorrow.

Day 4 at Fiesta.

After two days washed out by the weather it was good to be back on the field and flying again.
Today was a competition day and the targets were to be on the field so everyone was supposed to leave and fly back across the target area and drop their baggies, sand filled nylon bags with streamers.

As many people did not want to compete it was decided to allow those to fly from the field. This is what Keith decided, Dennis fitted the burners the right way up!

Black bits to the top Dennis!

Other people to fly from the field today were from overseas with their special shapes.

The Swiss brought a cathedral

The Brazilians brought a chicken

While the Germans brought their pisspot!

We also found Nemo!

To launch a balloon you need the OK from a launch director, commonly known a Zebras due to their black and white striped shirts. Over the years the dress has become more outlandish and bits have been added to the costume.

Our Zebra says GO

Chasing is just as much fun as flying and in the truck the crew have a good craic. Today we saw a sign that shows that the good lord has the same problems as me sometimes, as stated by the following sign spotted outside a church.

I've had to say the same to some women in the past !!!!!!

Fiesta day 3

Fiesta started on Saturday 3rd October on a very mild morning. Up early, 03:30 and down to Fiesta field by 05:00 on a very pleasant, if dark, morning. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with chilli and was edible, just.

Just before sunrise the dawn patrol took off and flew in the dark to show everyone just what the wind direction was.

Dawn Patrol before launch.

Dawn patrol in flight.

After sunrise it was time to set up the balloon. This entails a whole lot of people laying out the balloon and the pilot inflating the envolope with cold air before turning on the burners. Once the balloon is upright then the crew need to lean on the basket to hold it down until the launch director, or Zebra as they are known, gives the go ahead to launch.

Chase crew holding down the basket.

Saturday morning is the first mass ascension where all the balloons fly from the Fiesta Field in waves. We were in the first wave but in no way the first as depending on the wind direction the balloons take off in order. Being in the middle of the field we are never first so get to see lots of balloons in flight before it is our turn.

Early fliers on day 1

Once the balloon is in flight the chase crew does what it there for and gives chase to the balloon so they are there to help with the landing. Sometimes on these days it is difficult to spot your balloon as there are hundreds of multi-coloured balloons in the sky. Doesn't help if the pilot goes for a dip in the Rio Grande.

Boating with a balloon.

On mass assencion day there are still hundreds of balloons in the air when our flight is over.

Still taking off from Fiesta field, view from out landing site.

After landing the crew then packs up the balloon and breaks out the beers, then back to the field for propane and off for a hearty breakfast.

After a great first day the weather changed and Sunday was a complete washout as it rained all night and was still lashing down at 04:30 when it was time to leave for the field. Gave us an extended stay in bed.

Monday was drier, well not raining although the field was like a swamp in places. The problem today was with the winds. They were strong, over 10mph, and in the wrong direction as they would have taken the balloons off over the military airfield south of town. Also down by the airfield they were gusting upto 23mph. Not safe conditions. So after getting up at 03:30, having green chilli stew at 05:00 we were in the Mule Barn Cafe by 08:30 for breakfast. Tomorrow is supposed to be much better with 5mph winds predicted for the rest of the week. Lets hope the weather men get it right.

Off to Albuquerque

Left Illinois last Tuesday to head out to Albuquerque for the 37th International balloon fiesta and to do some house hunting. Not for me, I want to move to the tropics, but for Ray and Karen. The journey is 1200 miles and we were taking a balloon basket to our friends Keith and Tina who own the Skyangel that we crew for at fiesta.

Left early in Ray's big truck below.


Headed south through Illinois

Illinois

past St Louis,

St Louis

and then across to Oaklahoma, through Texas

Texas

and into New Mexico. As you can see from the photos this part of the US is pretty flat, except for Missouri which is full of rolling wooded hills, was driving so no pictures.

Fiesta starts tomorrow.

In the US of A

Well I am back across the pond for a while. It is time for the anual pilgramage to Alberquerque for the international balloon fiesta. As usual I have stopped off in Illinois first to meet up with my friend Ray and then drive the 1200 miles south-west.

This year has been a little different as on the 20th he was married in Jamaica to his fiencee Karen. A couple of days after I arrived they had a wedding reception / farewell party at Capt'n Ron's down on the Illinois river at Creve Coeur. It was a great party and I managed to catch up with people I have not seen for a few years as well at the other halves of guys that I meet every year.

Ray and his bride Karen with a friend, Chris

I will post some more pictures later once we get back from the balloon trip.

Today, Monday, we were running around getting things sorted before heading off to New Mexico in the morning. One task we had to complete was to remove the drivers seat from Ray's little red car, a mercedes SLK500, as the stitching had come apart and a repair was needed. This proved to be almost impossible. After asking the upholsterer how best to remove it we were told that there would probably be 4 bolts holding it down to the body of the car. In fact we found 6. After removing 5 with little bother the last one refused to unscrew. Instead the thread tore and all we managed to do was turn the bolt without it coming out. We tried all the usual things, sticking a screwdriver under the head to lift it, swearing and cussing the bloody thing, drilling the head once we had successfully managed to completely bugger the head. In the end we ground down the head completely and will need to drill out the bolt at a later date.

Unfortunately this did not allow us to remove the seat. Stumped we took it to the upholsterer, who had removed it the last time some repairs were needed, only to find that there were two screws holding the seat cushion to the seat mounting and it popped out in about 2 minutes flat. Oh did we feel stupid after sweating for over 2 hours.

Ghana

Been here just over a week and am not really impressed with the place. It is like a sefer version of Nigeria. The locals see the white skin and want to cheat and rob you with a smile on their face.

Everywhere there are street sellers, sitting by the side of the road and wandering beside you at the traffic lights flogging all sorts of shit from sweets to shoes, from pens to pictures. Not reallypestering but have to tell each one no before they leave you alone.

Selling junk.

The hotel looks nice but is really pretty crap. Room is OK but the service is appaling, breakfast is a joke, order toast and eggs and you get the toast and once it is cold then you get the eggs IF they remember. The air conditioning and hot water is switched off daily by the cleaner even when I have gone to get a cup of tea while they clean and the girl knows that I will be back immediatly. As I say really shitty service, expect a lot better for 120 USD per night.


Don't know what this is for but it is by the parade ground, the independance arch and the national stadium.

Don't really want to come back here, which probably means that I will.

No 2 beach

Saturday I went to No 2 beach, so called because No2 river reaches the sea there. Why the river is called No2 I have no idea.

No2 beach and river.

It was a pretty good day for the rainy season, light drizzle and the odd bit of sunshine interspersed with heavier downpours. We played around in the surf between the rain, when the sea was warm and the drizzle light it was great fun but the rain was cold so then we sat in the beach bar drinking Star lager, the local brew.

No2 river and misty mountains in the drizzle.

To get there we travelled along what is probably the worst road I have ever been on. The only potholes we encountered were at the bottom of water filled craters. It took well over an hour to go about 15 miles. If the sun was shining it would be well worth the hardship of being thrown around the car like an ice cube in a cocktail shaker. As it was it was still an unforgettable experience.

Sunday started of pretty lousy so spent the morning in the hotel. Around midday the rain eased so went into Freetown to look for niknaks and geegaws. Found lots of toot for sale along with fresh? fruit and veg in the street markets. Have come to the conclusion that street markets are virtually the same the world over, selling the same guff, fruit, veg, spices, clothes, shoes, tools, weel just about anything you could want. Only difference in the various countries I have been to is the quality and the price. Still I love to wander around these places as it is where the locals shop and you get the feel of the place and all the local colour. A police truck went down the street below and the market parted like the red sea for moses only to immediatley close behind it as if it had never been there at all.

Freetown market.

By early evening the sun was trying to break through so went for a walk along Lumley beach. This could be a really nice public beach if the city council took the trouble of cleaning the rubbish. I saw all sorts of shit there from used hypodermics to babies nappies (daipers for the yanks out there) to faeces to all manner of plastic crap.

Lumley beach

Despite this as it was Sunday the beach was crowded with lots of football matches being played. Went to the Atlantic bar for a rest and a cider and to watch the sunset as the weather had cleared. Walked back in the gathering night with just the moonlight to guide me. Not as romantic as you would think as I had to keep dodging all the crap on the beach.

All in all a fun weekend.

Sierra Leone.

Arrived in Freetown after a two day trip from home. Left early Saturday morning and stayed overnight in London with my old friend Elaine. Had a nice curry around Sundridge Park and a few beers whilst catching up.

Sunday morning off to LHR and another adventure into the unknown. First time flying with bmi, first time to Freetown, Sierra Leone and first time sitting across the aisle from a handcuffed imigration deportee. Apart from being confronted with 4 immigration and custome officials, 3 plain clothes and 2 uniformed coppers all that seemd to be missing was the partridge in the pear tree.

Arriving in Freetown was the usual fun of travelling to the third world, all off the plane and then hanging around on the tarmac for a bus as we weren't allowed to walk the 500yds to the terminal. More chaos in the terminal with scrambles for the immigration desks. Fortunatly the customer had arranger for us to be met air side of immigration so we were whisked through with little formality. Due to the deportee returning to Freetown ALL luggage was subject to a search causing another delay.

Outside were the usual multitude of new friends who want to help with bags and then pester you for money even if you carry them yourself. I suppose they are charging for their friendly, insistent welcome to their so called beutiful country.

From the airport to Freetown city there are 4 possible ways. Firstly you can drive around the river estuary which can take over 4 hours and is pretty ropey, secondly you can take the ferry which takes about an hour depending on traffic, third you can get the bus and hovercraft to Aberdeen which is on the edge of Freetown and finally there is the helicopter again to Aberdeen. They all have their drawbacks, 1 takes a long time and during the rainy season the road could be missing, 2 necessitates a crossing of the estuary on a ferry and a drive through Freetown and can be slow depending on traffic, 3 the hovercraft has been known to sink occasionally and does not always run, 4 the helicopters are old Russian ones flown by dipso russian pilots and have been known to crash. We travelled by ferry.

And what fun that was. After driving the land cruiser we were in through a couple of feet of water and up a steep ramp onto the deck we alighted and went up on the passenger deck. Thankfully it was dark so we couldn't see just how decrepit the hulk was,

Loading the ferry.

The departure was delayed due to the inefficient way the boat was loaded. There were 4 motorbikes that were loaded last and did not quite fit which meant that the bow ramp could not be raised therefore no departure. This resulted in much shouting and geticulating by all interested parties including the captain, crew, car drivers, bikers and just about anybody who cared to give their two hap'orth. Resulting in, for my part, a very entertaining 45 minutes. Eventually they shuffled around a couple of cars and mover the bikes to a space to the side of the ferry and we were off, chugging away across the bay to Freetown. Finally arrived at the hotel at around midnight.

Almost a fight on the ferry.

The hotel did not look up to much when we arrived and we spent a while sorting out rooms as there were none assigned to up. In the morning I had to change rooms and still in the daylight the hotel did not look up to much. Good job it is only a two week assignment.

On the first morning I was suprised to find out that all the people I need to talk to are on a training course for all but two days of my visit. Bloody great organisation that. I will have to work late each evening to discuss things with them after the course has ended for the day. The upshot of that is that I do not have to get to their office until late afternoon and thus can sleep in which means I can go out and party in the evenings, life is sometimes pretty good.

Back to work...ish

Started work again this week doing an audit on a network in Sierra Leone although I am not sure when I actually go there as it turns out the first week or so is spent at home 'preparing' whatever that means. I have so far been sent last years audit to famiarise myself with the issues. Won't take long as the network is small in comparison with the last few that I have done. Still it helps to pay the bills.

Last weekend was the annual music festival at the Blue Anchor known as 'Helstonbury'. Never having been to the Glastonbury festival I cannot offer a personal comparison but suffice to say I don't thing that the one up country would have the rubbish that was served up by this crowd. Only thing I can say is that they seemed to leave the best acts to the end of the evening, either that or I was too pissed to really appreciate the awfulness of the bands. I was informed by my son Lorcan who was working the bars that one lass could actually sing but was very nervous. The finale on Sunday night was a session by 'NOT The Beatles', this was instantly verifiable as all three guitarists were right handed and the drummer could play.

Martin and Lorcan 'working' (note the fine pint of spingo in the foreground).

Good couple of days though meeting with a few mates although most of the regulars were chased away by the crowds.

Robin showing off Nathans 'Helstonbury haircut'

Boring being at home.

Not much has been happening the past few weeks as I continue the job search. I have been that bored I even dug the garden and cleared out the weeds and may even plant something in the hope that sods law will kick in, meanint that as soon as I start something long term I will be out of here.

Still no transport so I am walking/cycling everywhere on the dry days, when it rains I stay home.

Last Sunday was a fun day, walked into town and spent a couple of hours in the Blue chatting with the Morris men and Scots Ronnie. Then went to the cricket club as the Blue were playing Seaview, from Falmouth, who rumour has it have been barred en-masse from the pub that bears their name, oh well what is in a name. Sat drinking cider with Robin who then had to bat at number 11. He bravely, in his partially drunken state, faced 3 bals at the end if the innings and proudly managed to score 0 not out, a stellar performance.

Later went to the Red Lion for the Euro final, not the greatest of finals, but at least the Krauts finally were beaten.

After the final whistle it was time to go home, so I headed for the Blue again. Met up with Robin and Terry from earlier and the three of up proceeded to get very drunk. I don't really remember what time I left but woke up in my own bed next morning with recollections of running some of the way home due to being bored with walking.

Had a telephone interview last week with an outfit based in Singapore which went well. I am to meet their African account manager, or the account manager for the African region, next Friday in Gloucester. Looks like I may be off to Sierra Leone in West Africa and after that to Syria. Hope all goes well next week as I repeat I am bloody bored.

Nobody seems to want to buy the house as we have had no viewings recently and have heard nothing from the folks who took two looks at the place. Divorce still pending as I have heard nothing from the courts which suprises me as the paperwork was sent in many weeks ago. Will need to catch the old trout when she is in one of her better, sober, moods and try to find out what is going on from her side.

Cornwall coast

Took a walk along the coast path from Polurian cove to Loe Bar then through Penrose estate and ended up in the Blue for a couple of pints last week. Here are some pictures.

Polurian cove and coastline

After walking down the lane to Mullion I cut through to Polurian Cove and walked along the coast path heading north to the Marconi Centre at Poldhu. Poldhu is the Cornish for Blackpool and as like its more famous northern namesake it attracts many visitors to its beach.

Marconi Monument to 1st transatlantic radio transmission.

Further along I passed Church Cove at Gunwalloe, another popular beach where the golf course comes down to the shore.

Gunwalloe, the golf course and Mullion village in the distance.

At Loe Bar, a shingle bank that was created by storms in the 13th century effectively cutting off Helston from the sea, is a monument to the HMS Anson which went down in a storm in January 1807 with the loss of over a hundred lives.

Anson Memorial at Loe Bar.

This tragedy had a silver lining though as it caused Henry Trengrouse to invent his life saving rocket line apparatus that helped get sailors from stricken ships.

Loe Bar