We were woken in the middle of the night by the phone ringing. It was Theo, the owner of a boat anchored near by. “HELP the chain on my dinghy is caught under the jetty and the tide is coming in”. We dropped our dinghy into the water. I grabbed the hacksaw and headed off to Mowbray Park Jetty with my headlamp on. Reaching the jetty I could see the bow of Theo’s Aluminium Dinghy at water level and the stern and outboard motor in the air. I passed the hacksaw to Theo and he started cutting into the chain while I tied off our dinghy to the jetty.
PING. The sound of the hacksaw blade breaking was heard just before Theo muttered some words that must be French or German or something. Luckily some smart bugger had thought to grab a spare blade when picking up the hacksaw. I fitted the new blade and this time I started cutting from on the jetty. Although the floating pontoon jetty was rocking around I had a better angle than Theo.
PING. The sound of the blade breaking could be heard just before a BANG as the back of the dinghy hit the water. The bow flew up launching Theo in the air. Somehow he managed to end up in his dinghy. Upside down but in the dinghy.
With the dinghy now free from the jetty the strong tidal current of the river now had control of it. Theo just managed to right himself in time to grab the back of our dinghy as he went past. After composing himself he was able to start his outboard motor. I jumped in our dinghy started the outboard and we both motored back to our respective boats.
Just another night on the river!
Boat life is being prepared for whatever is going to happen next.
Theo’s boat