Barge Discharge
I forgot to mention that our friendly neighbourhood barge (see Barge Charge, earlier) made a return visit a short while back. Now, maybe it’s too heavy for normal anchors, or they’re too sloppy for accurate parking, I don’t know (but I should find out – intriging question) but the barge uses a complicated arrangement whereby an on-board crane lifts a large steel cylinder from where it lies on the barge, and upends it down a hole in the deck. The cylinder end sits on the river bed and locks the barge in position no matter what the tide is doing. Works well, most of the time, unless you’re trying to reach the creek bank before the tide drops and it’s night time and there’s a power line right above you when you lift the big metal cylinder ….
Fortunately, I’d been reading my NSW Waterways boating handbook and had discovered that a floating waterproof torch (flashlight, for the benefit of any Americans who might be having visions of a Viking funeral and wondering what this has to do with safer boating) is now a mandatory safety item on all powered vessels regardless of the time of day. Since we only hire out boats during daylight hours this had not previously been an issue, but now we needed at least one torch per boat. So I just happened to have bought enough torches and fresh batteries to ensure everyone on the premises was able to finish whatever he or she was doing that evening and retire in relative comfort (shame about the electric blankets though).
The power guys came and sorted out a work-around so the ice-cream didn’t melt and in the morning strung a new cable across the creek, so it was all pretty painless (and I believe no-one on the barge was injured, fortunately, as it could have been quite nasty) and it did give our breakfast guests something to watch, but it does go to show that paying attention to the small print of beaurocracy can have its benefits 