Saturday 10 August 2013

Don't you just hate it when you get to somewhere you really want to moor

and there is, actually, loads of space but you can't get in because they've left 10 ft between boats. Such was our situation, so I ran down the front whilst G hovered MR alongside and I tried to hail the occupant of the narra - I could see he was in there and his side hatches were open, he was just trying to ignore us and hope we'd go away.
So we beeped the horn.
I hailed him again.
He continued to hide behind the sofa.
Normally, at this point, you'd give up but I saw the mist (a very red mist) and spotted a dog walker coming close to him. I asked her to knock and give him a shout. She did, bless her, and told them that a lady (she didn't know me) on a boat wanted to talk to them.
At this point he capitulated and agreed to move his boat forward with a last, token protest, that there was no ring further up. "Not to worry," I replied jauntily, "thank you so much, I'll knock a pin in for you"
That one sorted, we were able to stick MRs nose in and stake it and move the unoccupied Sea Otter back 10 ft and we were in.
If  I've moored in the middle of nowhere and someone moors on top of us I'm the first to moan; but this is the River Thames in London where 'rural' mooring are in short supply.
Within 5 minutes we had breasted another boat up against us but they were soon able to pull back into a free spot
Once safely moored up I took 'Mr let's hide behind the sofa,' a bottle of beer and a bonio for his dog in the interests of him not taking life out on Daisy (who is prone to visit neighbouring boats)
He then, having accepted my bribes, plugged his noisy, smelly generator in and planted it back towards us. His lady turned up and told him to move it.
It now transpires he's been moored for at least 3 weeks on these short term 'honey pot' moorings. Perhaps I should have kept the beer bonio

How to maximise the space outside your beach river hut
One bird per upright
 I can't help wondering if they squabble like little old ladies if someone sits on 'their' post!
 Nice little set up here - something tell me this is just a holiday home
 new bridge going up
 The dog friendly Kings Head in Old Shepperton
 Our moorings edge onto this park
 Daisy heaven and our own personal poo bin
 A nice end to the day

2 comments:

  1. Well done and award yourself 50 brownie points. We need more people like you to stick to your guns. I would probably have given up and gone looking for somewhere else calling him all the names under the sun! By the way loved the stag photos. You must have got very close or had a telephoto lens. They were brilliant.

    Irene
    Xxxx

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  2. Sometimes you just CAN'T let it go - the fact that I could see him ignoring me ...grrrr...
    Praise indeed from our photographic role model thank you.
    I was VERY close - Graham pushed me ever closer from behind!!!

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