Thursday 17 June 2010

The sporting Life!

One more day to go and them we become a couple of paupers after the bank ram-raid our savings and pay for the boat. However, at the same time, our lives will be enriched by all the time we will spend aboard. My guess is that our collective smiles will be inversely proportional to the size of the bank balance. The insurance is done, got a good discount on price - However, I did look through the terms and conditions and several cheaper quotes were ignored - One had such a long list of exclusions, it was hard to identify what would actually be covered.

The delivery man called today and delivered a couple of new life preservers we ordered from ebay. Looks like I picked the correct sizes as each is a good fit. This is a reassurance against any risk of either me or Mag's slipping overboard, especially whilst navigating the Trent and other tidal rivers. Later our River Trent "Sissons Charts" arrived in the post. I purchased a copy of the tidal and none tidal guides. This will help with navigation as we will know more about where the mud banks are. The guides look to be straight forward to use and give a good pictorial representation of the river.

As it was such a nice evening that along with our friends John and Tracy, we had a trip over to Torksey to visit the boat and to get a look at the water levels on the Trent after last weekends rains. Tomorrow is the start of the course fishing season and there were a few anglers looking over the river in anticipation. Each to their own, I understand how they are feeling as in the past I did a bit of fishing myself. However, one day I had this feeling of disenchantment with the so called "sport" of fishing altogether. I found that my road to Damascus conversion was utter and complete and I have never been fishing again.

Its the same with shooting, whilst I never participated in the sport with a gun. I was brought up in an area where it was normal to have a dog that was swift enough to catch rabbits. Furthermore, the locals were also adept at relieving the local lord of some of his Pheasants by much quieter means. I enjoyably spent much of my time of an evening, prior to the shoot weekends doing my bit. In the main, thwarting the guns by driving the birds onto adjacent land on the Thursday and Friday evenings prior to the weekend. It is amazing what can be achieved with a Pheasant feeding whistle and a few piles of feed corn whilst taking a couple of dogs for a walk. (Young Pheasants in the pens are "groomed" by being called to feed by blowing a whistle. The beaters can then use a feeding whistle later to call the birds towards the guns) Such is the sporting country way of life in the UK.

Later ....

3 comments:

  1. Be aware that the life preservers wont right you if you fall in. Proper life jackets should really be worn for navigating serious tidal rivers like the Trent, especially on the more serious stretchs below West Stockwith. Life preservers are really for messing around on canals where they are usefull for keeping kids afloat long enough to scoop them up

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  2. Being an old sailor with 11 years afore the mast - man and boy :-)

    Now are you trying to scare me! :-) You say Tomato I say tomato you say Life Jackets, I say life preservers. Be assured they are good quality vests...

    My old mentor at marine radio school always said to the new starters "Remember, you never need to be able to swim more than seven miles when out at sea." He would then finish off with the delayed comment "Stright down!"

    Regards.

    Mick

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  3. Not trying to scare anyone, just passing the comment that the preservers/vests (orange rigid foam) are not the most ideal jackets for serious waters. Not only do they restrict movement but they also dont provide the bouyancy of a "proper" open water life jacket. You only need to buy them once it is worth buying the correct ones first time around:-)

    Have fun anyway and dont lest getting onto West Stockwith or Keadby scare you!!! Getting into those locks, now that is fun, even in our little pocket rocket!!!

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