Port and Starboard
The clocks
have gone forward one hour so summer is definitely here. If you are preparing a
boat for the coming season I wish you well with it. For those that don’t own a
boat but like to get a boat fix every once in a while, there’ll be more opportunities
to boat-watch as the annual stream of pleasure boats up and down our rivers and
creeks begin to take to their moorings on the water over the next couple of
months.
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| Still under wraps, our new cushion |
Some of you may have come across the chain of
thought that the word ‘posh ‘originated from the nautical terms port and
starboard. This was in the days when well- healed 19th century ship
passengers, on their way to India, would be able to afford the better bunks on
the port side for the journey out (port out) and starboard on the homeward leg
(starboard home). With the other passengers on board being mere mortals and gawking;
ooh, there posh, as the cash-laden bashed past toward their favored bunks with
leather-cased luggage.
Well, there is definitely no posh aboard Shoal
Waters (we can do pie-mash but not posh) – she’s firmly at the working end of
the boat scale and at 76000 plus nautical miles traveled, and counting, continues
to be well used and cared for.
Why all this posh tosh you might ask? Well,
we have a new bunk cushion for 2015, it’s cherry red, and I couldn’t help
commenting to the maker when I collected it that it was all rather posh-looking!
I didn’t quite use those exact words but that was the gist of it. And yes, it
may look posh set beside the other, now seasoned looking, cushions but the
creek-sailors among you will know that a session of weighing anchor will have me
scrambling below inevitably covered in dark goo from the bed of a creek, which
will wipe away any glint of posh to our preferred ruddy and cheerful glow, like
the rest of her.
Good sailing, and boat watching,
Tony
