In a message dated 22/12/2009 22:52:43 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
I'll leave Arthur to fess up about our small loss though. OK I'll own up............. On the epic Voyage of Python from Adelaide Dock to Worksop someone liberated a shortish flat ended heavy steel scaffolding pole (technically called a 'Put-log' I think). This has had many uses over the last two or three months and was finally relocated to Seth Ellis for the purpose of ice-breaking during December should this be necessary - as in fact it was. On Wednesday, after we had broken the ice with said pole and reached the bank side by the Bay Tree 'caff', I then used it to push loose ice from between the boat and the bank to allow passengers to step rather than stride on board. Unfortunately a sudden gust of gravity swept the pole from my frozen fingers and deposited it in the water. Sadly it didn't float for long, and soon it disappeared from sight. Come April, I'll see if the Sea-Searcher can locate it and we'll fish it out along with no doubt a few old bicycles and supermarket trolleys. On the positive side, mooring 'pointy-end out' from the mooring was decided upon last Saturday by Maurice and I after spending an enjoyable 50 minutes extracting Seth Ellis from her mooring through the pack ice and concluding that we would have found it easier to break the ice going forward rather than stern first. So after the seven Saturday trips we moored stern-in for the night. The Sunday crew followed our lead and moored it up in a similar fashion in the evening. Arthur Naylor. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
