Boating with Chloe

As I live on a small island in Moreton Bay the water is an everyday part of life. To go to work, or to go anywhere you have to go on the waterbus, you can see the water from the house, and I find myself thinking and talking about the weather like my Grandfather who was a (sugar) cane farmer. A few years ago we were in a terrible situation in Australia with drought, permanent water restrictions, lifetime habits of leaving the tap running while cleaning your teeth, hosing off the driveway and watering the lawn gone forever.



Fast forward to the last 2 years where everything has changed. We are now in a La Nina weather event, and as a result it doesn't seem to have stopped raining since. Gone are the days when you could go sailing on every day off, and putting the dinghy in whenever you felt like it are over. Unless you don't mind being wet all the time that is. The wretched grass never stops growing, so that has to be mown between showers (when you could have been walking the dog), and generally speaking I'm a bit grumpy that I don't get to go boating as often as I like. What's the point of living by the sea if you can't get out there?



A week or two ago Chloe and I managed to get the dinghy in for half a day. It was a bit overcast, but still warm enough for a swim, so we took off down between the islands and stopped on the sand. Chloe turns out to be a natural in the boat - I'm wondering if she'd been boating with previous owners as she had a few homes before she came to live with me. Yes, skeletons in the closet...  She sits beside me on the seat and off we go.



She is a beagle so generally speaking she can't be trusted off the lead, but with my heart in my mouth I've let her off when we're on the sand and she's come back, so far. She has a lovely time and in this photo ran like a mad thing up the side of the island in the sand, then roared back down with her eyes closed. The sand is very fine and falls out from underneath trees and their entire root systems.



It's nice to get out of the house and onto the water, and as you can see, Chloe knows how to have a good time!