Andrew Leigh
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2003
- Messages
- 431
Hi, my rant
The river I boat on has a tributary flowing into it. One can navigate this tributary for about 22km?s before it gets too narrow, it is great to idle along and to spot all the bird life. I have been up this river on numerous occasions.
On the weekend I took my brother up as he too is keen on bird life. While on the water I was telling him how selfish land owners sometimes sabotage the water to prevent boats from using the water way (in this country rivers belong to the government), they use low slung cables, rocks, concrete blocks, logs or any thing they can lay their hands on. We had hardly finished discussing this when I noticed a brand new river cottage along the starboard bank. Only seconds later there was a resounding thump, fortunately we were only idling. Turned the boat around and slooowly went back taking a different course ??. BANG.
Obviously the owner of the new river cottage had decided nobody was coming up ?his? river. This was only about 7km?s up the river, we are denied another 15km?s!!
Inspected the damage, prop not repairable (near to new 19? aluminium), 1 X 0.25? gouge out of the keel on the lower unit plus some scrape and scratches. Man am I ticked off. Had we had a source of flame there my brother would have torched his place (not the right thing to do but that was the emotion of the moment).
To take legal action in S.A. is a waste of time, how do you prove who put what where? We can?t control crime let alone stop people from messing with waterways.
Cheers
Andrew
The river I boat on has a tributary flowing into it. One can navigate this tributary for about 22km?s before it gets too narrow, it is great to idle along and to spot all the bird life. I have been up this river on numerous occasions.
On the weekend I took my brother up as he too is keen on bird life. While on the water I was telling him how selfish land owners sometimes sabotage the water to prevent boats from using the water way (in this country rivers belong to the government), they use low slung cables, rocks, concrete blocks, logs or any thing they can lay their hands on. We had hardly finished discussing this when I noticed a brand new river cottage along the starboard bank. Only seconds later there was a resounding thump, fortunately we were only idling. Turned the boat around and slooowly went back taking a different course ??. BANG.
Obviously the owner of the new river cottage had decided nobody was coming up ?his? river. This was only about 7km?s up the river, we are denied another 15km?s!!
Inspected the damage, prop not repairable (near to new 19? aluminium), 1 X 0.25? gouge out of the keel on the lower unit plus some scrape and scratches. Man am I ticked off. Had we had a source of flame there my brother would have torched his place (not the right thing to do but that was the emotion of the moment).
To take legal action in S.A. is a waste of time, how do you prove who put what where? We can?t control crime let alone stop people from messing with waterways.
Cheers
Andrew
