Sun, sea & steak: 4 days on a Yacht in the Mediterranean

Abbie Louise at near top speed

I recently had the good fortune to be asked to spend a few days taking photos on a clients yacht in the Mediterranean. I met Tony almost 10 years ago when I was asked to build a website for his business – a group of care homes for young adults in the Sussex & Kent areas. Long story short, I am still working with Tony and having looked after his company website (The Boulters) for around 10 years, we have developed a good working relationship and I have a great deal of respect and affection for Tony.

Last year Tony asked me to build a new web site for him as he had been into yachting for a little while and had decided to start doing yacht charters with his current yacht – Abbie Louise. We never got round to getting any decent photos of the yacht and had been waiting a while for some decent weather. Tony recently moved to Gibraltar as he is now retired and he gave me a call a few months ago and asked if I would go out there and spend a few days taking photos.

Naturally, I wasn’t keen. I mean who would want to spend a long weekend on a yacht, cruising around the coast of Spain, in good company, drinking champagne, eating great food and taking photos?? What a ridiculous notion. Of course, I jest – I jumped at the chance and back in late March I flew out to stay with Tony and hang out with him and a few of his friends.

The photos below are a small selection of what I took but I wanted to update the blog and get some photos up so those who are interested can have a peek. Here you go:

To get some shots of the yacht doing what yachts do, we dropped anchor near Estepona and used the Jet rib to spend a bit of time following the others whilst they cruised for a bit. This was great fun and managed to get some nice shots but at times, the water got quite rough due to a combination of the wake of the boat and the speed we were going (the jet rib can do 50 knots) and several times, I almost broke my camera and ended up cutting my leg. Here’s Mike, Tony’s good friend, piloting the rib:

Tony's friend Mike piloting the Jetrib

Abbie Louise cruising off the Spanish coast as Mike and I cruised around in the jet rib so I could get some decent external shots of the boat:

Abbie Louise off the Spanish coast

Taken whilst out on the jet rib when we were anchored near Estepona. You’ll notice how calm the sea was, which was a blessing as I was able to get some quite nice shots of the boat, without fighting too hard with the elements:

The yacht in a very calm sea

Sam, Tony’s skipper, being a tad cheesy, giving the trip the ‘thumbs up’. Sam is a top bloke who helped to make my trip most enjoyable:

Sam being cheesy

The view as we approached Morocco from Gibraltar. I was continually blown away by the gorgeous vistas we were continually seeing.

Looking over to Morocco from Gibraltar

Puerto Banús – where we spent 3 days before heading down the coast to Gibraltar – this was taken as we were departing for Gibraltar:

Yachts in Puerto Banus

And finally, it wouldn’t be a post by me if it didn’t have at least one Black & White photo; A tanker a few miles off the coast between Gibraltar and Morocco. The mountains on the horizon are in Morocco:

Tanker off the coast of Morocco

There are some more photos on my Flickr photostream. I could keep rambling about the trip but I actually have things to do. Cheers for taking a look.

PS. I forgot to mention the Steak. Whilst away, I had the pleasure of eating in some great places and found that Argentinian fillet steak is a-maze-ing!! Cooked to perfection (Medium rare) by: Gauchos, Gibraltar – A fantastic restaurant with a great atmosphere, wonderful, friendly staff and the most excellent chefs. Also Morellis, Puerto Banus did a fine job of giving us some incredible food and really great staff.

Tags: freelance, gibraltar, living the dream, photography, spain, travelling, yachts

This entry was posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 08:01 and is filed under photography, ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.