2018
ELLEMANN FAMILY SAILING
On a personal nautical front, I can confirm with great pleasure that our boat is finally working (mostly) and we have been on four trips. The last one, over to St Mawes, ended in an alarming moment as we were getting into the water taxi. As the weight came onto one side, suddenly the front two deck hatches in the cabin popped up and great swell of water came out of the bilges. The immediate thought was “!!!!!!! we’re sinking!” I admit to a moment of panic as I envisaged our new second-hand boat settling onto the St Mawes’ harbour bottom. But rather than a Titanic sized hole, it quickly turned out to be a hose from the cooling system which had popped off and was filling up the bilges.
My second report is the total and abject failure of Oscar the Owl and his ability to scare away the gulls which have been using our boat as a loo. Thanks to Iain McLaren for the photo which he sent me!
I was told at Macsalvors that I might have to move the owl around the boat occasionally as the seagulls get to learn that it’s not real. Well, it took the Port Navas gulls about 20 minutes to work out that Oscar was plastic.
BRIAN SPARGO’S NEW FRIEND
On a similar note, Brian has been spotted with a new friend called Nigel – an incredibly confident gull who’s taken to sitting on the boat until he get’s a fish from Brian. Perhaps it’s the same gull who’s become a mate of my not-scary-at-all-owl?
