High and Dry

The painting above is one I did last week and have sold. It is an oil painting of Ferryside Beach with Llansteffan in the background. The river Taf to the left goes up to Laugharne.

It reminds me of one of those days quite a few years ago. Alex and I sailed around to Laugharne up the river Taf. It was at trip we had done many times. This was before electronic GPS and Nav plotters etc. All we had was an echo sounder which was faulty.To navigate up the river safely you had to keep to the left hand channel markers (twigs stuck in the mud). It was one of the highest tides of the year and we were late.

Going up the river getting dark Alex said "the echo sounder is reading low"

I ignored it as it was always giving false readings.

Alex said "there is grass either side of the boat."

We stopped well aground. When the tide went out we were left stranded in a field 100yds from the river in full view of Laugharne. It was a very depressing night we emptied our water tanks put out 2 anchors. In the morning we somehow managed to winch ourselves off and back into the river.

We have many friends in Laugharne and we were grateful to avoid the humilitation of the town waking up to find our boat parked high and dry in a field.

Anway today we had our granchildren but I cut and primed half a dozen boards ready for painting. A clear day tomorrow.