Rudder bother

You know something's up when you're going round in circles with the tiller straight ahead

- Marsali Taylor

Spring is not far away. The three minutes more of light each morning and evening will eventually become an extra two hours, and soon, as we move towards March, it’ll be light enough and (sometimes) warm enough to do outdoor work after tea. The shalders (oystercatchers) will be returning in a flurry of peep, peep, peeps and settling down on the football pitch like dinner-suited guests picking at the last of the buffet.

And of course my fellow boat-owners will be talking about cranes for those boats which have spent the winter in the marina, safe from gales but growing weed even in these cold waters. We reckon we can get away with antifouling alternate springs and autumns, or two years at a push, but after that the mussels start growing.

Just for once I feel the lift-out’s a good thing – in fact, I was almost thinking of bringing