Owl Pellets

Just back from a soggy morning volunteering at Rainham Marshes open Day. Total lack of punters due to about six other local events on and, well, general sogginess. However I was lucky enough to be in the children's marquee so had a great time trying out all the children's stuff for myself! Spent a whole hour dissecting an owl pellet and trying to identify all the little bones and skulls and bits. You soak the pellet in water and then tweeze it apart. Most of the bits were disconnected but one lump was basically 2 whole voles squashed together and kind of rolled up like a swiss roll. As you unrolled it the whole animal was there and all the bones in place, a mini rib cage, a spine, little tiny finger bones. Totally fascinating, small mammal CSI. Just one pellet had six assorted small mammals in it and apparently an owl sicks up 2 or 3 a day, that's at least like 12 voles a day, 4000 a year ....if owls die out we'll be knee deep in voles.
Actually what fascinated me most was how familiar all these little bones were. I looked at a tiny thigh bone, there was no doubt what it was - it looked basically like a human thigh bone or like the giant dinosaur ones in the NHM. Under the skin (and fur and scales) we're pretty well all built to the same pattern. But the wonder of all these tiny bones, this myriad tiny life going on all around. The owl pellets filled me with the wonder and complexity of God's creation all over again. Praise him.

inspection over ptl

We have finally passed our re-inspection. Now hopefully they will go away, leave us alone and let us get on with actually teaching. I felt a bit of a fraud as I didn't get observed and didn't get pulled into any of the 'focus groups'(read interogation sessions). My major contribution was condensing about 90 pages of reports and strategies into a 2 page crib sheet for the tutors who were in them so that they knew what to say! Still at the end of the whole thing I think our failure was a good thing. We got loads of resources and IT stuff that we'd been asking for for years. We even got computers put in the maths room! Next week we're probably back to pleading for spare pencils.

All at Sea

9pm Maldon - Centaur is sitting comfortably on the mud moored alongside Reminder, we have to clamber over her to get on board. Reminder is owned by a charter company and there seems to be some rivalry but all very friendly. Pleasantly surprised to be given our own cabin and Leo another and to find electric lights and a perfectly ordinary gas stove in the galley. Not sure what I expected - seen too many Trafalgar reconstructions I suppose!
9.30pm - vital lesson on how to operate the sea toilet,'foot down - pump. Foot up- pump'. Hmmm ok. 10pm The tide has been coming quietly in, all of a sudden there's a subtle movement barely felt- she's afloat! Anchor up, moorings off, engine on - and we're nosing out down the Blackwater. The full moon comes out shining across the water - just magic!
11pm - amazed at how low tech it is. We're finding our way by the bouys - red on our right, green on our left - only some aren't flashing so Terry the skipper sends a couple of the crew forward to hang over the bow with a torch and shout when they see one!
Midnight - Moored up by Osea Island, we try out the sea toilet and turn into our bunks.

all at sea day 2

Saturday 5am Up with the tide for our first real sail. Beautiful calm dawn, just a breath of wind but it appears to be enough. I help to wind up the anchor and Leo and Phil help with the sails.
 
  The mainsail is huge, when it shakes down it's like a young tennis court unfolding, held at the corner by an iron ring that slides to and fro on a bar across the deck (the aft-horse). 'We do not get in its way' appears to be the basic safety rule on board and the mate points out various safe havens to crouch down in if we happen to be on deck when someone shouts Lee ho!

leo heave-ho 
6 am Seems to be a lot of cloud building up. Notice that various old hands are donning some serious wet weather gear. Seems a bit premature -doesn't look that bad....
6.05 am We are suddenly in the middle of lightning and torrential rain. I go below to get my own gear on, pop my head up again and get a crack of lightning/thunder right over the mast. Try to remember if Centaur is a timber barge or a metal barge- And does the Faraday cage effect work in water ....decide to retreat to the galley and make some tea.
10am The storm has long since passed to be replaced by blazing sunshine and we are sailing down the Blackwater towards the sea. Lots of lazing around the hot deck chatting and reading punctuated by cups of tea and coffee and occasional bursts of winding and hauling as we attempt to find some wind.
1pm No wind. In fact we appear to be going backwards. Skipper gives up and takes us by engine the last half mile to moor up by Mersea Island. Typically just as we get all the sails stowed (a major job!) the wind picks up. Every sail in the Blackwater including our rival Reminder appears to be out and about except us!
2.30pm Shore parties set off in the dinghy. A couple of us opt for a pub walk on Mersea Island and the rest go sightseeing in Brightlingsea. Mersea is beautiful, wild flowers, birds and butterflies and a nice half of cider at the Dog and Pheasant.
Help the girl in the pub to spell 'tagliatelle' and 'glazed' on her board and resist the tempatation to suggets she joins her local basic skills class - I'm on holiday!
10pm A good roast supper followed by a folk song concert from the mate and his girlfriend and we're all definitely ready for bed.
 

All at Sea day 3

10am - sailing back up to Maldon gooselegged before the wind (look- you can actually see we're moving!), no longer being overtaken by swans, we are feeling like old hands and real sailors. The sea toilet holds no more terrors for us and we are as high on caffeine as the rest of the crew. We have all had a go on the wheel and I have learned to splice a rope, also to avoid being nearby when the anchor needs hauling up.
The wind and sun have brought all the little sailboats out again. We move through them like a whale through schools of fish, everyone gets out of our way, though the cheekier ones like to show off by passing just under our bow. One slightly hairy moment with a single handed yachtsman who appears completely oblivious to us. He is on course to connect his shiny red yacht with 65 tons of well preserved barge when he finally comes to and comes rapidly about.
SB Reminder comes up behind and slowly but surely overtakes us, sailing on towards Maldon. Skipper is unrfuffled. 'She'll get in early and still just have to sit and wait for the tide!'
We pass SB Hydrogen going the other way with a crowd of people on board. They all wave and we wave but feel very superior becuse Hydrogen is a charter - you just go on as a passenger - no hauling sails for them!
1pm Coming into Maldon. Wow! tourists are taking pictures of us! We are on a genuine bit of Essex coast history! And it feels great.
Long live the Thames Barge Sailing Trust - where else could ordinary people like us with no training and no experience be a part of crew like that.