My next project

Emp_Fab

You Muppet! The boat is about 30m from the shore. I walked out into no man's land after deciding the boat was a non starter.

Emp_Fab

The steps to a new world....

At the bottom of the steps.... one small thing for a wotsit, one giant blah blah blah...

Finally on the surface of the moon... er.. mud.

Just before the near disaster of throwing Mrs Fab's EOS into the mud....

Emp_Fab

Approaching the boat... (otherwise called 'wading through shit')

The object of my desire.... in a lovely blue... and covered in barnacles.... and fucking impossible to dig out...

Some of the more solid ground I had to walk on....

The hull of the boat..... taken whilst I was slowly sinking in the mud.

After abandoning the boat due to the dangerously squidgy mud.... I head off into the distance....

Emp_Fab

...and further out I trek.... not knowing if I would ever make it back...!!!

And after 15 minutes walking into the unknown, I find myself in the middle of nowhere...  just me, the sand, and the water....   no humans for at least half a mile in any direction....  standing on ground that is usually underwater most of the time...

...and further out again...

More strange alien landscape....

Emp_Fab

My little village from halfway across the estuary....

The furthest point of my trek, just before I bottled it and thought I'd better turn around....

One final look back at home before heading back...

And.... mission accomplished... (forgetting about the boat).....

Freddie Mudcury strikes a pose to celebrate !

So there you are....

I don't know why the photos were a little out of focus. but you get the idea.

It was quite weird being out there - mostly because I was standing where almost nobody ever goes... and the fact that it was the sea bed and more often than not, underwater.  Even though I knew the tide times, it was a bit spooky being out there as I know the estuary quite well and we have the second highest tidal range in the world, just behind the Bay of Fundy in Canada.  This means that the water rushes in and out of the estuary at a phenomenal rate - especially on a spring tide, where the water can be 10.5 metres vertically higher at full tide than at low tide.  That's 35 feet vertically.

I'm glad I made it home before today's 30 foot of water rushed over my head !  

I've seen it now... I have no great burning desire to head out there again !

There will be no Apollo 2 I'm aftaid.

Antique_Guitars

You need to get someone with a tractor to pull it out for you

Emp_Fab

Oh shit.... I've just been reading about the estuary, as it did occur to me (after the event) that I could have got stuck in deep mud, and been out there alone, in deep shit.  Apparently I didn't know it as well as I thought and it's known for it's glutinous mud and pills.  You don't really think you could sink... and keep sinking.... or I didn't.

I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight !

Shit... what a dumbass thing to do on my own. :-/

holnrew

Just a bit!

chillidoggy

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23655100

 

Saw it on the news this morning, and thought of you, Emp!

Emp_Fab

The weirdest part was when I touched the boat - it gave out this creepy noise... a mixture of wet sand falling and the scuttling of animals.  Anyway, it kind of startled me and make me recoil.  Instinctively I felt I didn't want it anymore.  In reality, it was probably just moving slightly in the mud with the weight of me leaning on it, rather than it hiding one of these...

Either way, it's sorta put me off a life on the ocean wave.  There's a lot of risk out there...  lots of things to go wrong, and lots of water beneath you to tumble down into a watery grave.  I think I quite like the feel of solid ground beneath my feet.

mike_l

It was hiding an Emp Fab?

Myranda

Emp_Fab said:

Either way, it's sorta put me off a life on the ocean wave.  There's a lot of risk out there...  lots of things to go wrong, and lots of water beneath you to tumble down into a watery grave.  I think I quite like the feel of solid ground beneath my feet.

Um... did the boat not being 50% submerged in mud not suggest there was a lot of risk?

Unless it was an art installation I doubt the owner intended for it to be there, and there's the whole "worst things happen at sea" type response to bad news... 

Emp_Fab

>>Um... did the boat not being 50% submerged in mud not suggest there was a lot of risk?

>>Unless it was an art installation I doubt the owner intended for it to be there, and there's the whole "worst things happen at sea" type >>response to bad news... 

Hahaha !  Strangely, no.  I saw the semi-submerged boat as being an indicator of poor care on the part of the owner.  In my mind, it had merely slipped free of its mooring (the front cleat is broken, so that would imply tugging on a mooring line in stormy weather), and then it filled up with water and sank.  Then over the years, it very very slowly sank into fairly firm sand.  It didn't occur to me that maybe someone might have drowned in it, or that my 'nice firm sand' would turn out to be the consistency of wet cement.  Even when I was standing in it, it never really occurred that I might continue to sink as the boat obviously did.  You have this daft idea in your head that, yeah, it's very muddy, but it's just squishy and annoying for the first six inches or so.  Not for a microsecond did I consider that I could potentially just slide vertically down - god knows how far.

Funnily, knowing the fact that it is sunk in very soft mud means I could almost certainly pull it out from the shore - chuck a wide block of wood on a rope inside the hull and attach it to a ratchety-winch thing hooked to one of the many sea-wall anchor points and take it very very slowly - one click at a time, maybe over several days, and I reckon it would slowly slide out.  The only problem with that plan is that some bugger would almost certainly steal with ratchety-winch thing overnight.

Worse things happen at sea indeed !

I think I've been put off the idea of 'tootling up and down the estuary', now having a better idea of the dangers - and being a bit more aware of my own mortality these days.

Emp_Fab

mike_l said:

As a hint Emp, and I'm being serious now, take someone with you in case you get into trouble in the mud. Also, take a long rope, tie it round yourself and to something secure off the mud. Also a long stick/pole to check whether the mud in front of you is safe to step on is a very sensible idea.

 

I'm not pissing around, I've seen people get into trouble in mud, and wouldn't want you to get into trouble. 

Well, I was stupid enough to disregard your sage advice, assuming that my brief assessment was correct that the mud was a) only an inch or so deep and b) the same consistency everywhere.  Not, as it turned out, varying from solid sand to custard like deep sludge in the space of a few feet with little or no obvious visual clues.  I have clicked your knowledge badge for this !  Feel free to Facepalm me in return :-)

chillidoggy

Back to the greenhouse door project? Or is the laminate flooring project now the safer option?

mike_l

Emp_Fab said:

mike_l said:

As a hint Emp, and I'm being serious now, take someone with you in case you get into trouble in the mud. Also, take a long rope, tie it round yourself and to something secure off the mud. Also a long stick/pole to check whether the mud in front of you is safe to step on is a very sensible idea.

 

I'm not pissing around, I've seen people get into trouble in mud, and wouldn't want you to get into trouble. 

Well, I was stupid enough to disregard your sage advice, assuming that my brief assessment was correct that the mud was a) only an inch or so deep and b) the same consistency everywhere.  Not, as it turned out, varying from solid sand to custard like deep sludge in the space of a few feet with little or no obvious visual clues.  I have clicked your knowledge badge for this !  Feel free to Facepalm me in return :-)

As long as you've learned from your stupidity ;-)

Misterg

Emp_Fab said:

Never mind, Emp. Let's see what you could have won:

http://thecelticblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Speedboat.jpg

(P.S. - did it ever cross your mind that the reason it's there like that is that the back end might have broken off ?)

Misterg

It doesn't look like you'll need it now, but I 'dug this out' (ha ha!) in case you needed inspiration.

(No connections, but it blew me away when it was first posted):

Spider

Emp_Fab said:

Looks more like the Hairy Nose than the Mary Rose.

Emp_Fab

All change !!!  The plan is back on again !!  I showed my sister-in-law the photos and mentioned my plan to possibly drag it out and she was very enthusiastic about the whole thing, and has rekindled my interest.  Not to mention this photo of what might be the boat before it sank (from Google Earth historical imagery).  The colour seems a little off... but it's a satellite image... but it's definitely the correct mooring and from the photo, it looks like there *might* be an outboard motor on the back - or it could just be shadow.  It may not even be the same boat, but it's definitely the correct mooring.

I've also discovered that I can get a ratchet thingy capable of hauling 2 tons for £13.50 off eBay....

...and according to Google Earth's measuring tool, it's about 50 metres to a large brick structure I can use as an anchor point.

Get some 8mm polypropylene rope, wade out there (using a better route this time, and with company, and taking some form of mud-mat arrangement with me to spread the load of my body (been doing some research this time !), so I don't sink, and slip it through the hoisting point at the top of the bow.  Get back on dry land...  wrap more rope around the brick structure and stick the ratchety thingy inbetween the ropes.   Then slowly pull on the lever.  It may take a few hours, but with 8mm polyprop I could exert about 960Kg of force before the rope gave way - but I suspect the hoisting point would rip out of the hull long before that.

Worst case scenario (barring the 'getting trapped in the mud and drowning' one) is that it won't shift, breaks during the process or is a rotten pile of shite once it comes out, but I'll still have a ratchet and some very nice rope.  :-)