A good day in the rain

Although we’ve barely stirred from the boat today, as the rain was far more on than off, it’s been an interesting and productive one. After a good night’s kip we sat in the dinette to drink our early morning tea, watching a heron wading up and down on the edge of the reed bed opposite.

I’d just commented on how little success he was having when he started catching fish; first a smallish one, then another, then a really good sized specimen. When last we saw him, he’d stalked off to the far end of the bed and caught another little one.

You often see herons about, of course, but seldom spot them in action.

After a decent bit of web browsing and the like, we turned to and cleaned the boat, dusting and Pledging the shelves and other ledges and sweeping the floor. The mats I left in the well deck (we’ve got the cratch down at the moment) until I ran the engine this afternoon, when I got the Dust Buster out and gave them a good vacuuming.

Time was also given to putting the finishing touches to the quiz for this year’s Braidbar Owners’ Day. It’s all done now, answers checked and tracks assembled for the music round.

I was just thinking about getting down to this blog post when a lot of engine revving made us look out. A boat winding just beyond our stern had misjudged the depth of the offside of the flash and was hard aground. Shafting and reversing was having precisely no effect at all.

As Sheila and I got dressed up to go out into the rain to see if we could help, another boat coming by was able to take a line and drag their stern round enough to let them get off. There used to be signs at each end of this flash warning about the shallows, but they’ve gone in recent years. It’s well worth remembering that the flashes around here were used as a graveyard for redundant working boats in the 50s and 60s, and that the original offside bank is still there, lurking under water.

The situation is much the same as at Poynton, where the so called “Deeps” are another trap for the unwary boater.

This victim turned out to be the humorously named Cheeky B, complete with a follower of this blog. It was entertaining to meet you again, must say, and I’m glad that it all came out OK in the end.

I should add that they had a newly arrived Australian couple on board; it just goes to show, some Aussies can stay out in the middle for quite a while…

/wahaha