Oh bu$$er!

Friday 2nd May

The bank holiday weekend starts here. The plan was to park the car in the Tesco car park, walk to Jannock and fetch her up to the moorings, offload all our stuff from the car to boat and then move the car to a longer term parking space before retiring for the night. What’s the use of plans then?

Arriving at the boat we found her high and dry, on a mud bank, and listing to about 30 degrees to starboard. With the aid of a nice guy from the boat next door we tried rocking and pushing her off but failed miserably. I then tried poling the bows round into the river flow hoping that once they swung round they would help to pull the stern off the mud. That also failed but it did remove the list. With Jannock sticking out at approx 45 degrees to the bank I decided to walk the stuff from the car and we would await a passing boat tomorrow for assistance.

Whilst I was doing a trip to the car, Brenda made one attempt to refloat Jannock. A cruiser displacing a reasonable amount of water came out of the marina and past. Ropes off, engine on and catch the water it put under our hull. No joy. Watch for the bow wave and try to use the depth of that. Still no joy. Switch off engine and tie up the ropes again.

Whilst I was walking back and forth to Tesco car park I decided to try using a lever. I placed the short boat pole between the cabin side, near the stern, and the bank. It wedged in quite nicely. Then, by tying three ropes together , I took a rope from the bows onto the bank and pulled the bows into the side of the river. This had the effect of pivoting on the pole and sliding the stern off of the silt. A quick push with the long boat pole and Jannock was free. Brenda was able to move up to the Tesco mooring whilst I walked up carrying the long pole, various ropes and mooring stakes etc.

I must admit that when we moored up I was worried about the flow increasing and the river level rising. I was not expecting it to fall by 6 – 9 inches during our week at home.

Once settled on the mooring, I went and moved the car to a long term parking spot whilst Brenda went shopping at Tesco. She has planned to do a Thai Green Curry this weekend and found that there is no curry paste in the larder. Whilst there her eye was caught by a bottle of Maltina. She loves anything malty, she was in a bad mood and it was on offer. 45p squandered and she has admitted that she could become addicted. Cocktails . . . . . a malteser (probably not on a stick) and a malted milk biscuit to dunk in a glass of Maltina. How decadent and sofistikated can a woman get?

Graham