Sunday 31 August 2008

ANCHORS AWEIGH

There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.
It's never been a passion that I've shared: that enthusiasm for boats about which the Water Rat in The Wind in the Willows spoke with such evident delight. But you can't stay on a small island for long and not be aware of the importance of the boat.

So, although I'm not desperately keen about being in them, I do quite like looking at them - especially those almost-Lilliputian-scale fishing boats that are moored at the old jetty in Emporios...


Along the necessarily attendant chains...


And rusting anchors...


And then there's that little red row-boat that I seem to photograph every year as if I can ever possibly hope to take a better picture of it than the one I took last year...


Images: Brian Sibley & David Weeks © 2006-7


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Walking to & from work every morning past fields & tiny streams & bits of woods, I see Ratty very often, in & out of the water, slipping through the freshly dug fields, but I haven't found out yet where he keeps his boat...

Good Dog said...

That's a marvelous shot of the little red row-boat. From all the photographs you've put on the blog, it's clear both you and David have a fantastic eye for composing shots.

Hope you're having a relaxing time.

Joan Lennon said...

Thanks for your comment on my blog about the Wow! 366 thing a while back - partly because it was a nice thing to do, and partly because it has now sent me to your blog and I get to look at the gorgeous photos ... Given that is where you are now, it's not too likely Callum and I (Davey can't make it) will see you at the launch on the 8th, but if we do, we'll come up and say Hi!
Cheers, Joan.
P.S. Liked your story!