saxonaxe
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Trying to sort out a mooring for my boat today. A big tide with a very low water allowed me to work on the ground tackle, a huge concrete block, heavy chain and shackle. The idea was to attach a length of heavy rope, a Bouy and a smaller ' Pick up rope and bouy'
The bloke who organises the moorings on behalf of the Harbour authority was there, Nick who is a local Farmer, nice bloke very helpful. Another new comer was there too hoping to launch his boat from a road trailer...
He also wanted to raise his mast...As an ex Seaman I thought...Not in a million years ! A stiff breeze was blowing, the Mast weighs probably 4 or 5 Hundred weight....and the boat is balanced on a Trailer....
Anyway, I kept quiet but Nick obviously thought the same as me and convinced this hopeful Lubber to launch the boat, motor down river to a boat yard with a crane and do it safely...
It's a lonely beautiful place and the tide was ebbing fast. My original idea was to take my dinghy and work from that, in less than a couple of feet of water, but afloat. I had taken all the kit in my Granddaughter's shopping trolley which I have been lumbered with for a few days...
By the time the mast pantomine was sorted, the tide was past half ebb and the river drying rapidly.
Nick needed to check other moorings and so instead of launching my dinghy, we went in his fibre glass boat. He would drop me off at my mooring which was now dry and move on with his tasks....
He rowed us out and I stepped onto fairly firm..ish.. mud/weed and he rowed away. I began to walk the 15 yards to my mooring and soon realised I was in trouble. Carrying the heavy rope, shackles and Bouys across the mud, I was sinking to half my boot depth. Very difficult to balance and the effort to raise my foot was pulling my boots off. Stand still...and you sink...I managed to find a relatively hard area and had to kneel on the rope coil, just to rest because frankly I was knackered just trying to keep moving to avoid sinking. It's like running with leaden Diver's Boots on.
I made it to the mooring block, covered in mud and exhausted. 20 minutes rigging the new gear to the block and then Nick appeared in the dinghy. I seriously considered just waiting until the tide flooded and he could pick me up in the dinghy. Looking around I found a 6 foot piece of Drift wood to use as a walking stick and managed, just falling and sitting in the mud once, to get back to the dinghy.
No photos of the full fiasco, mud to my elbows, not good for the camera and my jeans after a good scrape and nearly dried on the way home, don't look too bad. To be honest, a bit frightening really when the mud is halfway up your boots and you are still sinking...
Still, shouldn't have joined if I can't take a joke..and at least I can move my boat up river in the next week or so.
The bloke who organises the moorings on behalf of the Harbour authority was there, Nick who is a local Farmer, nice bloke very helpful. Another new comer was there too hoping to launch his boat from a road trailer...
He also wanted to raise his mast...As an ex Seaman I thought...Not in a million years ! A stiff breeze was blowing, the Mast weighs probably 4 or 5 Hundred weight....and the boat is balanced on a Trailer....
Anyway, I kept quiet but Nick obviously thought the same as me and convinced this hopeful Lubber to launch the boat, motor down river to a boat yard with a crane and do it safely...
It's a lonely beautiful place and the tide was ebbing fast. My original idea was to take my dinghy and work from that, in less than a couple of feet of water, but afloat. I had taken all the kit in my Granddaughter's shopping trolley which I have been lumbered with for a few days...
By the time the mast pantomine was sorted, the tide was past half ebb and the river drying rapidly.
Nick needed to check other moorings and so instead of launching my dinghy, we went in his fibre glass boat. He would drop me off at my mooring which was now dry and move on with his tasks....
He rowed us out and I stepped onto fairly firm..ish.. mud/weed and he rowed away. I began to walk the 15 yards to my mooring and soon realised I was in trouble. Carrying the heavy rope, shackles and Bouys across the mud, I was sinking to half my boot depth. Very difficult to balance and the effort to raise my foot was pulling my boots off. Stand still...and you sink...I managed to find a relatively hard area and had to kneel on the rope coil, just to rest because frankly I was knackered just trying to keep moving to avoid sinking. It's like running with leaden Diver's Boots on.
I made it to the mooring block, covered in mud and exhausted. 20 minutes rigging the new gear to the block and then Nick appeared in the dinghy. I seriously considered just waiting until the tide flooded and he could pick me up in the dinghy. Looking around I found a 6 foot piece of Drift wood to use as a walking stick and managed, just falling and sitting in the mud once, to get back to the dinghy.
No photos of the full fiasco, mud to my elbows, not good for the camera and my jeans after a good scrape and nearly dried on the way home, don't look too bad. To be honest, a bit frightening really when the mud is halfway up your boots and you are still sinking...
Still, shouldn't have joined if I can't take a joke..and at least I can move my boat up river in the next week or so.
All you can ask of yourself mate 
ing it in that mud tho 
