5 in 5 - July 2016 - A sailing adventure

Welcome to '5 in 5' where on the 5th of

each month I post 5 photos that I have

taken in 5 minutes.

If you follow my blog you will know my love of the water and sailing.  So I was hugely excited to take part in a Round Britain Sailing Trip in aid of Macmillan nurses.  The trip was organised by First Class Sailing East Coast and two boats set off from Essex on 2nd May heading up the coast.  I followed their progress through videos and Facebook updates and was excited as my own journey approached.

I caught a coach to Plymouth marina where I caught up with two of the crew. With four on each boat, there would be eight of us in total including 2 skippers. I didn't know until the evening before that I was the only woman!  Luckily I was embraced as a team member and everyone got on really well.  We started off next day and stopped overnight at Brixton, Weymouth, Ramsgate and Burnham on Crouch. We opted to do a night sail rather than stop at Brighton, this proved character building as we sailed through a storm in relentless rain, and did 3 hour watches. Sadly I killed my mobile phone as I forgot it was in my waterproofs pocket and it turned out not to be waterproof in such awful weather.  A costly lesson but one I won't make again.

One of the highlights was being accompanied by a pod of dolphins. They swam in the bow, leapt along side and swam underneath. It lasted a breath-taking 5 minutes and was magical.  As I was at the helm I couldn't take photos but the skipper managed to take a video on the Go-Pro. You can even hear the dolphins talking to each other.

I was on the boat for 8 days in total and managed to complete quite a bit of my Competent Sailor qualification. One of the things this included was learning to tie knots and ropes are everywhere on a sailing boat. So I decided to use these as my theme for this months 5in5 photos:  

  

I had a great experience and learnt a lot. Having sailed before on Thames sailing barges I knew life is different at sea and we are dependant on tides and winds. This time I also learnt that we are sometimes dependant on an engine too, and that when this breaks down things don't go to plan. But it all adds to the adventure and experience. Congratulations to Colin Stracey for all his hard work organising this Round Britain Sailing Trip and for making this a worthwhile cause. I don't know the final figure donated to Macmillan Nurses, but I know Colin is thinking of doing this again next year so if you fancy taking part in one or more of the legs do let him know.

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It is always fun to have company so if you feel inspired to take part in this photo challenge here is what you do:

1.  Choose a location.
2.  Have your camera ready.
3.  Set a timer for 5 minutes (I use my mobile phone).
4.  Take as many photos you can until the time is up.
5.  Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the link tool below.  

   Please note:

You have until the 25th of the month to add your photos to the link and you can take  your photos any time. They do not have to be taken or posted on 5th!

If you would like more information please go to the original post here where you will find more.

5 in 5 - MELANIE - June 2016

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part! This month is a little later than usual as I received Melanie's photos while I was on a sailing trip and I have only just got home. But without further wait, over to you Melanie:

Here I am with a June 5 in 5 photo which is back to my favourite theme of flowers.  On June 5^th I actually completely forgot about 5 in 5 which wasn’t surprising as I was over in England with my husband visiting our daughter who lives in Southampton.  On June 6^th our daughter was due to receive an award from the Royal Geographical Society which was the reason for us being in England.  Hence June 6^th was mainly what occupied my mind.  However on June 5^th the three of us visited some gardens near Southampton called Houghton Lodge.  You can check out the gardens on their website:- www.houghtonlodge.co.uk.  The blurb on their website says ‘everyone leaves with a sense of its ageless tranquillity and special magic’.  Indeed one of the things we felt as we walked around the grounds was a great peacefulness.  Walking in a garden and taking lots of photos meant that despite not having set out to do a specific 5 minute photo taking at a specific place it was still easy for me to sort out five photos.  I use a digital camera and all my shots have a time on them so all I had to do was chose one five minute period where I took several photos.  The period I chose was when we were near one of the gates of the walled garden.  You can see that gate in the bottom left hand photo.  In that chosen period I took ten photos three of which were of the same flowers (the one which has the bee in it on the top right hand corner).  I love taking flowers with bees in them and this particular flower was very popular with bees.  I decided against putting three of the same flower in my choice of five and hope you like the three others that I chose.  There was certainly a wide choice of subjects for the photos as well as a walled garden and numerous flower beds there was an orchid House, a lovely vegetable patch, a smoking topiary dragon, lama in the meadow and swans on the River Tess.  Now back in Adelaide with July 5^th not too far away I must put on my thinking cap for July photos.

While Melanie and her husband were in UK we managed to meet up for a day and it was so good to spend time together. We visited an arboretum and interestingly there was a large area designated to plants from Australia so Melanie was able to tell me about her own visits to eucalyptus trees and how the koalas tuck themselves into the fork of a branch to sleep during the day. I never realised that these, and kangaroos are both nocturnal. Quite sensible when you think of it, coming out to eat when the day grows cooler. Though Melanie tells me this has a knock on effect of kangaroos being active at night when driving in the dark is hazardous.   

I mentioned last month that I had planted lavender and geraniums by my front door, and that I have just returned from a sailing trip. In the time I have been away my plants have grown considerably. In fact I thought I had gone through a time warp! The pots are now looking established and the tomato plants I planted out a day before I left look incredibly strong and healthy. Other parts of the garden look like a jungle and I have blackcurrants to pick. I love this time of year in the garden, when everything looks luxuriant and plentiful. The rain and occasional sunny day has helped.  I hope your own garden is looking good and bringing pleasure.

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and take part the next challenge starts on 5th July. It's great fun and you can see more posts here. And if you want to know more 5in5 this post should answer any questions and give other information that you need.

Hopefully Melanie will be back next month and I look forward to you joining us. Thank you for popping by, it is great to have your company!