Barge Charge
Time and Tide wait for no man
Many of the houses up-river from us do not have road access, and rely on the river for everything. This is also true for new houses, some of which require some sizeable machinery for excavation and lifting. Forbes Creek is a useful place to load such equipment, as well as materials, as it has road-side access. However, it also suffers from shallow water for a goodly part of the tide and there is a sandbank at the junction of Forbes Creek and the Woronora River.
A few days ago, a barge was coming in to pick up an excavator but misjudged the tide/sandbank and got stuck. It was a long wait for high water so they all decided to come back later. Unfortunately they got that wrong too, and the barge lifted itself and floated down the creek towards the Boatshed jetty and the Prince Edward Park road bridge. By this time it was quite dark and although I saw the lights moving I assumed it was being managed until some guys fishing knocked on the door to say it was adrift.
Not being short of a canoe or two, and with my wife slowing it down as it brushed against our jetty, it was easy enough to get a couple of ropes on it and with the help of a 4×4 in the car park we made it secure against the far bank just as the owners turned up.
It would be nice to say we got a couple of beers out of it for our trouble, but good karma was probably a better profit. Plenty of people help out with my boats when hirers have trouble, or call me to say the people look stuck or are abusing the boats (yes, some do that!), so what comes around goes around.
It’s nice living on the river here at Woronora.