A recovery day in Wells after the stress of yesterday, moving Paxton Princess away from the quay to the pilot boat's moorings for the coasters to upload their cargo and finally drying out as planned on a level sand bank. The day ashore taking the miniature railway to the Pinewoods to walk in the woods as the girls played finding and hiding games.
This was very much a day of recovery after the stress of our voyage yesterday. We had breakfast on board, being grounded on the low tide, before floating at 7.00am. We then moved away from the quay to allow the coasters to do their thing on the morning tide and, whilst doing this, we moved to the pilot boat's moorings and took on water. The coasters bring in soya and fertilizer which is unloaded by drag crane which seems to lose a fair amount of the cargo to the breeze and clutter the quay. There is also a regular dredger, the Wallbrook, which wins sand and gravel from the channel which is then off-loaded into lorries and taken away.
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The weather forecast was very much as per the day before and so, for this reason and to further recover from our ordeal, we decided to stay in Wells for a couple of days. We left the boat falling on the spring low water and spent the day ashore as local youngsters and holiday-makers caught crabs with a bab line by the bucketful. Our shopping in Wells was a suitably-leisurely affair and, once we had left the Paxton Princess at the quay, we became tourists and holiday-makers like everybody else. We bought Daniel some new trainers in white size 12 which was a find indeed.
The we used the indoor Play Place for the girls as I read the morning paper. We were now able to get the Eastern Daily Press again which is our favourite newspaper. We took the miniature railway to the Pinewoods and then walked in the woods as the girls played finding and hiding games. Then we let the girls play in the adjacent childrens play area and Daniel play on the amusements until, at 9.00pm, we cast off and cruised over the harbour to anchor over the drying sandbank and out of the way of the coasters for some maintenance on the morning tide.
I stayed up to see the ships go out and miss us safely and, after the pilot boat had returned and rocked our boat with its wash, was able to settle down for the night. By this time the boat was swinging on the anchorage as the tide turned and we seemed to be in a perfect position for the morning. I had surveyed the bank on foot earlier to pick my spot to sit down and we had just about found the middle of it to dry out on.