One boat, absent owner.

My sons have left home... so why was I paddling round our waterfront in pouring rain bailing out a *tinnie* I don't own before it submerged with someone else's motor attached?

I have instructions for the morrow too ~ because the deluge continues & the boat refuses to self~empty.  A mere 2" of freeboard had prompted a call to my son & that lovely panic when the tide has still to peak, he can't do anything & he's not sure his mother is competent.  Easy I was told:wait till the tide recedes, lift the right floor board; the bung has a string attached... Uh~huh...

First there is the mud to deal with ~ black, sticky mud that wraps lovingly around gumboots & seeks a death hold on them. Then there was getting out of the mud & into the boat.

What I wasn't told was the water was putrid.  Bits of old prawn & crab swirled in the bilge. Black mud had turned the water inky & it sloshed above the floorboards. I  fumbled reluctantly with the submerged floor ~ no string. I removed one partition @ the back.  No string.  The other side had all sorts of things attached but I had seen enough to know I would be operating by feel with goodness knows what so I began bailing... while the rain came down. Eventually the water cleared enough for me to see the string & undo the bung, whereupon I stood & watched the slow gurgle of water exit the bunghole. *sigh*

I grew up with boats.  I can manage most things if I have to but there is a reason I don't own a boat.  They are hard work ~ especially in the rain. I'm not sure why one has been left on my waterfront.