Oyster Dredging

The annual oyster dredging competition at West Mersea happened today, so we decided to go and have a look. Our outboard motor is having a crisis (again) which means rowing Worm out to Robinetta. It is much easier to do that when the tide helps, and almost impossible when the tide is against you in the Gut, which it it when the tide is rising which otherwise helps us up the Ray...

Low water was at 1100, which was when the dredging match started. There was no way we'd get off our mooring then, but it was the ideal time to get through the Gut and a none challenging time to get out of the house, so that's what we aimed for. We got on board Robinetta at 1115, and had to wait an hour before we floated, so we had a cup of tea, scrubbed off bird droppings, and checked the running lights. The starboard one had not worked when we needed it coming into West Mersea, but if came on as soon as Julian wriggled it....

We floated off at 1215 and motored out to see the smacks at work. We did not want to get in the way so stayed clear until they finished dredging, but they were still washing their catch on the way to the packing shed so we got quite close to that.

We picked up a mooring as close to the packing shed as we could, but it was still a stiff row against the tide to get there. Worth it though, to see the weigh in.

Rowing back to Robinetta was easy enough with the tide assist, and we went back to our own mooring for tidy up and rest before another long row back to the pontoon.