Whatever floats your boat

There I was doing a bit of daydreaming out of the office window. 

It is a great view out over the mighty Humber Estuary and with the fantastic suspension bridge that gets it name from the river in clear and unrestricted sight. 

It is a wonder that any of us get any work done at all with such an outlook on every work day. 

There is regular traffic up and down stream with coastal freighters and low set fuel barges vying for the deep water channel at high tide. The Pilot Service go past the window at a number of knots in contrast to the more leisurely passage of yachts and motor cruisers. It is very much an international trade route with my ShipFinder App tracking and identifying a specific vessel, the flag of its country of registration and a list of previous ports of call and where it is next expected. 

On this particular morning the tide had turned and so only shallow draught craft were able to navigate past the hazardous sand and mud banks which give the impression, as in centuries past, that you could actually make a crossing from the North to South banks of the Humber on foot. Into view from upstream, about 50 metres out, came a sleek silhouette. I could make out a sharp prow and a sloping bulkhead in the style of a fast motor boat but it was most definitely of a rowing boat variety. 

It was certainly of a higher calibre than those available for hire on a public lake or usually seen slung across the stern of a cabin cruiser. I immediately visualised the actor James Coburn using it to find a neutral ship in the movie "The Great Escape". 

Whatever its place of origin the boat was on the loose. There were no trailing ropes or damaged rowlocks and so how it began its quest for freedom was a mystery. 

The tide was now moving vast volumes of muddy water out to the North Sea. Gradually, as I kept watch, the boat edged closer to the shoreline. I am not at all familiar with the laws of salvage on the high seas although I seem to recall that if someone helps to rescue a vessel or cargo in times of peril then there is an entitlement in law for a reward commensurate to the value of said items. I was more in the frame of mind of "finders keepers" and somewhat eagerly at the prospect of gaining a boat for nought I enthusiastically took an interest in its progress. 

The current trajectory would bring the craft onto the muddy foreshore just along from the office car park. I made my way along the top path but a slight breeze was complicating matters and it soon became evident that any beaching might not be for some distance away. 

That was a shame as I had a busy working day ahead and so I reluctantly waived any rights or entitlements I might have had in law or otherwise and went back to my desk. For the rest of the day I mused on the lost opportunity although in practical terms I had nowhere to keep such a boat nor, in actuality, any time in hand to mess about in it on the water. 

In mentioning this episode to my wife, whose father had owned and used an inshore fishing coble for some years, she told me off for not alerting the Coastguard. Some hapless mariner could have fallen out and gotten into trouble or worse and of course notwithstanding that a maverick object in navigable waters constituted a hazard to other vessels. I did feel bad about that lack of judgement but anyway some other soul downstream was sure to have dragged the boat out of the shallows and put their name on it. 

You can appreciate therefore my astonishment just this morning, some 18 days after the first sighting, of making out in midstream the same distinctive shape making its way in completely the opposite direction.

Where had it been for the last two and a half weeks? 

Perhaps it had been nestled in the reeds and rushes just a short distance from when I had last spied it or trapped in the boulders of the flood defences which protect a business and retail park a bit further towards the Western Docks of Hull. 

Being a dutiful citizen or rather to avoid being chastised by my wife I dialled the number for the local Coastguard. The tone rang and rang. I repeated the call a couple of times but still no one picked up. I had carefully rehearsed what  would say to describe the boat and its course but all in vain. By the time I realised that the Coastguard was elsewhere engaged the boat had drifted out of sight. 

It had been a strange series of events on the riverbank and to be honest I don't think that will be the last time that I will catch sight of that elusive and ghostly vessel. 

Now where are my wellies and where can I buy a second hand boat hook?