FTB has always hosted video clips. Oh yeah, we were video-blogging pioneers us, even if the clips were shaky, pixelated rubbish. They were hosted by craptube.com in the olden days, back when everything was black and white, when the very idea of playing video over t’internet was revolutionary. “Someone please invent next generation video streaming”, we pined. “We can’t”, they replied, “your technological demands are so advanced we haven’t even invented the machine to do it yet. You’ll have to wait”.
With the current ban by the Turkish government on Youtube, uploading video to the internet had always been a pain.
And wait we did. Until today, that is! It comes in the guise of our new video channel, www.followtheboat.blip.tv, which plays host to high resolution video clips, stored all nice and neatly in one place, with easy to find links to all (currently non-existent!) previous clips. With the current ban by the Turkish government on Youtube, uploading video to the internet had always been a pain, which is why our Blip.tv channel is a refreshing change. Amongst the many features it notifies our Facebook account, allows you, the viewer, to email the clip to a friend, or embed the clip in your own website, and it doesn’t optimise our clip as we upload it, meaning we have complete control over the quality of the ‘episodes’.
And if all of the above was just a bunch of meaningless words that whistled straight over the top of your head leaving you feeling like a complete technophobic dullard, don’t worry. Just take it from us that followtheboat.blip.tv will keep you entertained as we travel around the high seas, OK? How we upload the clips whilst stuck in the middle of the ocean, you leave to us to worry about. You don’t even have to bother yourself with remembering the website address because we’ll embed all the clips into our posts anyway.
So, to kick off our launch, fresh for 2009…
Clip 1: Marmaris Yacht Marina Hit By Storms
This is hot off the press! For those of you who were not aware, this region of Turkey suffered it’s annual battering the other day, witnessing up to 70-odd knots of southerlies ripping through the Marmaris bay and taking the marinas with it. Mike of ‘Roam’ was around to capture part of this nightmare on video, which you may see below. We’d be interested to hear other accounts by people who were there – just pop your comments in the form at the bottom of this page.
I just found it amusing (which is probably the wrong word in this context) that whilst I was editing the second clip, a beautifully tranquil movie of boats in a gentle summer breeze, Mike was 50 miles up the coast taking in mouthfuls of the Aegean recording this truly horrendous scene. To help put the clip in context for those who haven’t been there, what you are watching is the sea dumping itself across the breakwater and into the marina. The clips ends with some stills of the aftermath.
Clip 2: Esper, Ilios, Viva Solo, Full Flight and Lady Jessie…& Liz 300m in the air!
Hopefully by the time you read this the second clip will have loaded, but because it’s higher quality than normal it may take a while to line up, depending upon where you are. If you are on broadband in the UK you might be able to stream it immediately. If you are currently in Marmaris you might want to take a weekend trip to Aphrodisias whilst they rebuild your marina. Our recommendation is to turn down your volume, click the ‘play’ button and let the clip run in the background whilst you continue reading or go make a cup of tea or something. Then when the whole clip has loaded, turn up the volume and play it again. That way it should play without pausing or jumping.
In a dark corner of a smelly bar in a marina last winter Thomas of ‘Viva Solo’ and I discussed the possibility of hiring a parasailer to get some snaps of our boats from the air. It was an idea mooted by Jon Anson in Bodrum who used to run flotilla holidays. Thomas and I chatted about it for a bit, put the idea to one side and continued drinking and talking bollocks. Fast forward nine months and Thomas’s partner, Susann, picks up on this idea as a useful promotional tool for her charter business, Ilios Yachting. Turns out she’s close with Ali, the restaurant owner of our favourite anchorage Boynuz Buku, who happens to own a para sailer. She’d got him to agree to take someone up in it to get some shots of her boat sailing in Skopia Limani, the bay just south of Gocek.
Now before you watch the clip I should explain a couple of things: this whole thing was a favour from Ali so it’s not like we had the luxury of time on our hands. We had just two runs at this. Secondly, a parasailer’s direction and speed is predicted by the winds, so manoeuvrability isn’t easy. Thirdly, controlling a camcorder whilst strapped into a harness is extremely difficult. The field of view is only 110 degrees so any panning is controlled by the direction of the parasailer and not necessarily where Liz wants to point the camera. As the cameraman it was an extremely frustrating 20 minutes for her, and as an editor it was hard filtering out all the wobbles, cables and associated swearing.
For those interested the boats in the clip are: ‘Ilios’ with the yellow Camel sails, for whom the video was made, Thomas’s ‘Viva Solo’ with the yellow hull, moving fast under solo helmsmanship and no mizzen sail, ‘Esper’ with the blue cruising chute and mizzen stay-sail and a jumping skipper shouting at parents out of shot, Christer’s ‘Lady Jessie’, tightly close-hauled and moving pretty fast (much to Thomas’s annoyance), and ‘Full Flight’ who performs the perfect tack in Seagull Bay under the stewardship of Pat and Tony.
Don’t forget: with both video clips you may use the little icons at the bottom of each clip to email to your friends, or you may use this ‘Share’ button to email to a friend a link to the whole article, along with your personal message. Just hold your mouse over the ‘share’ button and then select the first option, ‘Email’.
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Horrible story, well made video! Our boat is not so far away from the grey shed. Please, can anyone tell us if she is ok? She is a white Raider 35, on the hard, north of the grey shed, maybe 40 metres away.
Elly and Willem de Jonge, ‘Galatea’ Terneuzen,Holland
We received your video which is impressive. We have no news from the Marina. We hope that the boats just close to the pool(west side) were well sheltered and are OK.
Thanks for the information
We got the information about your very impressive video-clips from friends of us. What a storm! And what a contrast to the relaxing parasailing-video of Thomas. Thank you both.
Hi Liz and Jamie
Very impressive the video of the storm! Netsel did have some damages like a pontoon that broke in the middle!
Glad to know that you are ok. We also adopted a Marmaris street cat on 29th December, who was starving and almost dieing. She is already 1,5 years old and now that she has a new home she seems to be so happy! And we are so happy to have her too!
Hope to see you once again!
Love
Leslie
Thank you for the video, the storm was terrible, we hope that the boat is OK,we are in Paris.
The Boat seems a long way from home over the winter period.
It’s great to have a link with folks still on the spot. Not had any maessage from Yat Marine so hope boat is OK.
Best wishes to all… SV Una Vida Solamente. 🙄
Good footage and a really well designed website.
I’ve just been listening to the shipping forecast on BBC R4 and there are gale warnings in pretty much every shipping region. I know it’s hitting Spain and France (including the very sad story about the four school children in Barcelona) and, as Yener suggests, there is more to come. I know Netsel had a pretty rough time too.
Good God Jamie,I wouldnt like to be there at that time.We had similar blow here, not with that kind of damage,but some friends from the marina preferred to stay at a hotel rather than on their yachts for that day..Wise I would say, if you are sure the yacht is looked after well by the marina staff..Are you going to keep us informed with the coming blow as well? Hope you & liz are having a good time,Yes please notify me with the follow ups,hope to see you in spring greetings & all the best from Bodrum,
Love,yener
The videos were great, Jamie.
Lets hope that everything gets sorted out in Yacht Marine soon. Could we get more info on general dammage to YM? How did Netsel fare?
Great job, Jamie. You made us all look good! Sorry about Thomas being annoyed with me, but I think it relates to that old rule you have quoted earlier on this site: ‘one boat = cruising, two boats = racing’.
Hi Jamie and Liz
What amazing footage….really sad about the damage and now just wondering uneasily how Finike fared!! We look forward to seeing you all when we come back to Marmaris 😆 later this year Cheers for now Suzie and Robin
😛
Great Job!!!
http://www.ilios-yachtcharter.com
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http://www.ilios-yachting.de
E-mail: info@ilios-yachtcharter.com
Ph.: +49.(0) 511.437-9216
Ph.: +90.(0) 532.322-8235
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Ilios-Yachtcharter & TCP24
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30161 Hannover
I have just watched the video that you put together for “Ilios Yachtcharter”. Well Done! I love the beginning and end clips, a perfect example of relaxing in Turkey. The “merging in” of the yachts sailing is great. So Liz’s camera work has not been a waste of time and she did well for a so called amateur. I shall always remember that day of filming and how I had to work my backside off to help get “Esper” looking pretty with her light wind sails up. After all I only came away for the rest. On that particular day I, too, wished to spend a few lazy hours gently swinging in a hammock, but that was not meant to be. The Skipper can be a hard task master! 🙄
I love the fact that Mike couldn’t quite pan left into the wind – I was willing him so much, I fell off my chair!
Hi Jamie…this was pretty awful to watch,it must have been worse to have been there. It is everyone’s nightmare when leaving the boat in far away places that something like this could happen. Best wishes to everyone involved and we hope that they can get things sorted out .
Exciting when you are watching from the comfort from your own home/boat, but for the poor boats that were up on sticks next to the big grey shed it was another story. Sadly some boats were damaged, some quite badly.
Wow! What a storm. George and I have just watched the footage. Were any boats damaged? How exciting.