Out of Lockdown 15

 

"Off out?" I enquire.

A quizzical, perhaps incredulous, look. "Not today. Look at the weather!" It turns out that the boat is being taken down to the tide line to be 'wet .' To allow her timbers, shrunken by the drying effect of being ashore over the winter, to swell. so that her seams become watertight once more. 

A full gale is blowing. Thirty five, gusting forty, knots from the north west. Ships hurry in from the sea, making light work of conditions in the shelter of the river.

Smaller craft stagger and buck on their moorings.
 

White horses career down river. Frothing and foaming as they tussle with the incoming tide.

It is a day to stay ashore.

In the shelter of the woods.

The wind is forecast to drop overnight and to back west or southwest. Favourable directions in which to explore upriver. Perhaps lock into the wet dock, in the centre of Ipswich.

For now, Stargazer remains tucked, tight in, beneath the lee of the hill. The wind whistles and shrieks overhead. Occasional stray gusts ruffle the ensign, and a dusting of shattered leaves flutters down into the cockpit, but here the water is calm, the wind stilled.