HENRY HAS A TANTRUM AND DAVE GETS RESCUED

Well, yesterday was a day that's for sure.
First I will have to introduce you to Henry. Henry is a beautiful brass heater that we installed to keep us all nice and toastie in the Scottish winter. He took a lot of thinking out, and a lot of hard work by Dave to put him in as he gets fed diesel from a tank that needed to go in the next door bathroom and this required lots of copper pipe to get food for him in the saloon. Then he had to be tiled, and Dave set off to Edinburgh to see sister Jen and get tiles - very nice they are too. Then there was the drilling of holes to get the flue outside - the deck is solid steel, but at last he was in and all resplendent. we even spent a shedload of money to get him a special top for his flue that is supposed to let him work in strong winds. Henry is usually very well behaved I must say, and in the recent very cold, down to -8deg he soldiered on night and day without a murmur. However he has his ways and when the wind gets up a bit, or is a bit gusty, he shows displeasure by putting out a cloud of fumes and relighting with a big bang. This is thankfully very rare, he is usually totally fume free. Except yesterday. The wind decided to blow the gale that had been forecast and as that was a force 8, (over 40knts to you landlubbers) he went into a deep decline as had refused to work since as it is still windy. So we have had to resort to using the cooker to add a bit of heat to keep us happy. I dare say he will come to life when things ease up a bit.
Anyway Henry's little tantrum occurred just after Dave decided he just had to go ashore and get some food and the newspaper. It didn't seem too bad and it was only going to be a short time, nothing can go wrong in 20 minutes or so, can it? Wrong. He has just got over to the pontoons and marched off to the co-op when I noticed a)we were lurching, b) it had got dark and c) the noise from outside was something else. Poked my head out of the hatch and saw we had just received the full fury of the promised gale - 0 to 40 in a few minutes. So then tried to phone Dave to tell him not to come home - no answer. Tried again, still no answer and so it went for ages until at last he was out of the co-op and back on line. Said not to come home - the waves were up with pretty curling breakers on the top blowing spray everywhere. Not to worry says Dave I'll sit here and read the paper till it goes. It's not going, says I. Oh, says Dave. So next was a phone call to friend Steve the diver, who has a big boat. Laugh down the line and says he would be delighted to help. Told him he could keep Dave for the night or bring him home whatever was easiest. Doubt Dave would have been too chuffed to stay with Vivien and Steve as there are extra bodies as well as 6 dogs and a mad parrot. Anyway kept looking and finally saw Steve and Dave coming out towing our little red dinghy, Water splashing over the 2 of them, and braved the elements myself to help get the stranded mariner and the food supplies on board. Hard to get a jumping boat alongside, apart from getting things off it, but at last we had Dave and the shopping on board and .the dinghy tied up on the boat again. Relieved of his load good samaritan Steve took off like a rocket and went playing in the storm in his boat (I'm sure he has a good excuse for playing boats in a gale),before going back home, and once dried out Dave was able to sit down and do his crossword and Sudoku - which was the real reason behind the expedition. The fact that food for the next couple of windy days was a good idea too was probably incidental. So the wind is still blowing, Henry is still on strike, but we are warm and comfortable, lots of books, knitting and planning to do.