As well as PicoMicroYacht voyaging I enjoy being a member of a sailing club. The other day I was helping check the club moorings, having a larger boat on one of them.
The moorings have buoys attached by chains to large concrete blocks embedded in the mud at the bottom of a creek. The chains wear out either due to chafing or rusting and have to be checked regularly.
It is a muddy business, involving using a barge to winch up the chains, and sometimes going overboard to dig down into the mud.
To get to the barge we rowed down the creek in a small dinghy, trying not run aground. We then manoeuvred the barge into position using oars and started checking the chains.
All of this took me back in my imagination to a bygone era of hand operated barges, used throughout the ages.
A river landscape with figures in a ferry, barges and rowing boats
Salomon van Rusdael ca. 1644
Finding the swatchway on the way to the barge
Salomon van Rusdael ca. 1644
Finding the swatchway on the way to the barge
No comments:
Post a Comment