A day in Wells-next-the-Sea moored along the quay as not coasters were due to arrive, a new VHF hand-held radio from the chandlery after which I supervised the girls riding out from the local stables.
Up to the harbour mouth and to the beach there in our dinghy and there to survey the channel buoys and entrance route as the holidaymakers fished for crabs and the fishing boats their whelks as well.
There were no coasters coming into Wells for a couple of days and so there was no problem staying at the quay. This was despite it being the peak of the spring tides. In fact, it transpired that the recession has put paid to the trade in animal feed through the port and another influence has been the end of the Dock Labour Scheme for other ports. Now that the employers at Hull and Immingham, for example, can do what they want with the workers, the former flexibility of Wells as a non-scheme port is of no account. We dropped back to the Ni-Tricia pilot-boat mooring for some water nearby and would have had fuel but Nigel was at sea trying out some new gear. I also went into the Wells Chandlers and bought one of their marine VHF radio sets that they had on special offer as I had been meaning to get a hand-held unit for some time.
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Once back, the girls were belly-aching about a horse ride and so I broke off and went with them up to the riding stables by the town-centre pub. They had ponies for hire but no helper to go with them and so I had to get them organised and lead them for a one-hour hack along the Wells "Run" and back. Lunch, and then we loaded up the inflatable dinghy with our seaside and swimming things and then set off from the mooring to go to the beach at the harbour entrance. The water was so low by this time that we hardly made it there without wading but, once there, we had a fine time building sand-castles until the tide came in. We had left Daniel at the boat to plan his movements as we had decided that we should let him go off home to have a holiday with his friends whilst we stayed for an extra day or two in Wells. He came to join us at the beach later and was pleased with this arrangement.
After yesterday's experience in entering Wells, I spent some time later with my binoculars walking out to the sand-banks and observing the channel buoyage and fishing boat arrivals. This turned into a survey as I drew a map with this new "pellet" buoy in place and timed the fishing boats and watched the channel they took. By this time, the rising tide had floated the dinghy and Daniel motored back with it as the girls visited the chalet-site launderette, and I was left to walk back on my own alongside the fishing boats. It was quite late by the time we had all arrived back together and I only watched the fishing boats discharging their catches of crabs (and occasionally whelks) before turning in. It is interesting to see how the holiday-makers throng the quay-side, fishing for crabs during the day and then rush to see the fishing boats arrive and view their catches. The old ways are full of interest and nostalgia for the children of the modern age.