Playing chess with boats

On Monday morning we pulled round to the boatyard, rafted up to a dutchman and his old barge and awaited instructions!

Playing chess with boats is the only way I can describe the afternoon’s breath-holding entertainment.

If you ……. bring boat A round and lift it back into the water…….

then you can take boat B out of the water and put it on the side……

then boat A has to move along the other moored boats…..

whilst boat C is lifted in and rafted up to that boat A …..

then Pluto, a yatch with a problem, arrives & is told to raft up to us…..

then when its Pluto’s turn to be lifted out he’s sent off to do a twirl while boat D is lifted in and put in the Pluto’s place alongside us…..

then Pluto can come into the bank between the boat outside us and boats A & B which are rafted up together….

then pull boat A to raft up against the boat already rafted up to us……

and pull all three of us forward so that Piedaleau is in position ready to be lifted out tomorrow!

Got it?

Well ….. I watched fascinated and a little apprehensively as Adrian was having a siesta in the front cabin. Kept me fingers crossed that he didn’t have a rude awakening in terms of a boat being dropped on top of him!

All was well. And Tuesday morning it was Piedaleau’s turn. She had quite an audience as the Kiwi contingent came down to watch and a British couple who had just arrived from UK.

Author: mistyjf

I have been boating in Europe since 2009 when I shipped Misty Morning to France. Time & life move on! Adrian, my new partner, & I bought Piedaleau in 2015 to continue and expand our European boating adventures. View all posts by mistyjf