Mark Goldsmith wrote:

> Been there and actually done that.  and i swear the next part is true.  my
> wife and i were on a vacation in cancun before our son was born (she was 7
> months pregnant) and I decided that it would be fun to fly on a
> tri-islander (3 engine piston aircraft)
(snip)

OOOOooooohhhhh, that brings back memories of the (very) early
seventies in the Channel Islands.

<http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~ito-nori/trisla10.html>

Thank you google.com yet again.

Them wot reside between the bottom bit of England and France.

Wonderful aircraft which (I well remember) could handle
extraordinarily bad conditions.

I remember that the passengers were weighed, as well as the baggage.
Eventually they got so used to me that I was spared the scales and
they even adjusted between winter and what they laughingly call summer
in those parts (when compared to Oz).

IIRC Aurigny, as on that website, is a local Channel Island operator.

Oh, and Mark, thanks for the nostalgia trip. :)

SCUBA content (sort of): you wanna know about tides? Go to those
Channel Islands. I had friends arrive from Oz and we went to lunch in
a restaurant at St Peter Port, Guernsey, immediately across the road
from the port itself. The boats were bobbing around. Towards the end
of lunch I casually  pointed out that the boats all seemed to have
departed, then took them across the road.

There they were, with the keel yachts neatly inside their cradles,
with boats that could safely roll, casually rolled on their sides.
Stowing gear aboard in those parts carried a new meaning. That's a LOT
of tide!

There's actually some seriously good diving, think of all that
agitated water ... and then make VERY sure that you think of it very
carefully before that reg hits that mouth. Water transport, in those
parts, can be rather sudden and very drastic.

Cheers,

Christian