I couldn’t resist that as a title because it sounds so wonderful, doesn’t it. If it was one of my books then there’d be a handsome hero, foul weather, quite possibly an evil villain and definitely treachery. Maybe even buried treasure because I’m researching that for an Amy Hammond at the moment.
It was my life, so none of the above apply. Instead, I went down to Harbourside on Wednesday to see if I could see the SS Waverley coming out of Poole. You can read more about it here, https://waverleyexcursions.co.uk/ but the short version is that it’s the world’s oldest sea going paddlesteamer. As you know, I’m a keen amateur photographer and a bit of a boat nerd, assuming that’s a thing, so off we went nice and early and sat in the sun at Steamer Point so I could watch the Waverley coming out of the harbour with the pilot boat in front of it.
It was a good job that it was sunny, because I sat, and sat. Then I sat some more. Then I photographed some birds. Then I wandered down to the Quay because boats have to catch the tide so it couldn’t be running late.
Now, we all know each other on the Quay, and they’re used to answering my questions with a pitying shrug and a ‘she’s a writer…’ along with the odd question about whether they’re hero material. To which the answer is yes, always. So I wandered up to a lovely gentleman I know and said “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a paddle steamer, have you? Because I seem to have lost one…’
He laughed kindly because a dirty great big paddle steamer isn’t the sort of thing that slides down the back of a sofa, is it? Then he explained in a beautiful soft Dorset burr ‘ah, she’s stormbound off the island.’ Oh, bother I thought, while loving the phrase and thanked him and was only teased a little bit before I headed into the sweet shop to console myself with some maple walnut fudge so I can write about it with authority in the Amy Hammond books. I do hope you appreciate the lengths I go to for my research!
Then I wandered back along the Quay, nibbling my fudge and looking at the boats and birds and thinking, no wonder the people down here are so much more relaxed than I am and I’m relaxed when I’m here too. They live their lives by the wind and the weather and the tides, which is fun in Poole because we have an unusual double tide system. If they can do it, then they do it. If they can’t, then, to quote them ’tis how it tis’ and they get on and do something else instead. So on Wednesday it was my day to sit in the sunshine and watch and enjoy the world, and I enjoyed doing that even though what I was originally watching for never came.
Instead, I saw see egrets and turnstones and oystercatchers and gulls, including this lovely juvenile, who was sitting in an empty fish box. Or at least it was empty when he flew away, looking very full and content… He wasn’t at all bothered by me watching him, so I thought I’d show you as proof that Poole Quay gulls don’t steal pasties and chips. They simply wait for the fishermen to unload their catch and have oysters and mussels instead!
In case you were wondering, the Waverley did manage to get out of harbour and there was a shorter cruise going from Swanage later in the day, so it could have been a lot worse. But it was good for me to be reminded how little of life we can control, and to recognise that what I had was good, and there will be better. I hope the same applies to you till we meet again on Wednesday.
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