I wouldn’t swap an evening like this for anything. Those once in a while moments that make all worse times seem completely meaningless.

Kudu was put back in the water this morning, and I motored her up to the pontoons in Wells. The harbour master, Bob, asked me to move alongside an old sailing barge on the evening tide, since a wind farm work boat was set to go where I was. The day past quickly as I helped Rob and family out in his shop, finalising points on the website I’m building for him, and then helping to rearrange the clothing section of the shop. I enjoyed every moment of it. Work is never work when you’re with people who keep a smile on your face, I find.

It was the same in London. I worked with a fantastic group of people, and no matter what deadline loomed, as long as the joke flow was equal to the workflow, then we got the job done well, and enjoyed doing it.

The evening tide came and I moved Kudu to her new place, alongside the barge. I magnificent vessel she is too. Juno is her name, and she can be chartered – www.charlieward-trad-boats.co.uk

Later, as I was sat on the boat watching the spring tide rip into the harbour at 4 knots, a mooring experience I highly recommend, Bob came over to the boat and gazed out to sea. “I might need yur help Nathan” he said, “I want to move that rib to make way for two yacht that are coming in.”

And so off I followed, to help Bob with his harbour master duties. We moved the Rib (a large safety vessel with a big cabin), and I have to say, Bob’s precision control over the harbour work boat is incredibly impressive. With just inches to spare, he turned it in the narrow channel between the pontoon and the harbour wall, but then reversed back up there when he saw a youngster lose her crabbing net, in an effort to save it.

After we moved the boat, I then helped moor up the two yachts that were coming in, then sat chatting with Bob for I don’t know how long.

After that, off I tootled to the pub for a celebratory pint at the “Eddy”, before walking back to the boat where I saw something you really don’t see at all anymore. This….

That’s Wells for you, though. Not a McDonalds or Starbucks anywhere. There isn’t even a petrol station for a good six miles from where I am. It is such a wonderful place.

Back on Kudu, I started preparing dinner. Fry up some lush mince from the local butchers (and I paid than Tesco ever charged), a large chopped onion from the local grocers, who sells sells only local produce. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes,  some chopped garlic, a chopped sweet pepper, and some mushrooms. Leave it to simmer for a while, before adding a few herbs, and a good glass of red wine. Well, cheap table wine in my case, but a large portion. :p

So that’s it, my perfect evening. Oh, it was complimented by this view.

Did you know that if you headed straight forward into this picture, you wouldn’t encounter a single solid object until you hit the Arctic ice? Quite something, I thought, and the very reason you don’t want to enter this harbour in a Northerly, because the fetch is immense!

Right, my culinary creation is simmering down, and I’m listening to Radiohead’s excellent In Rainbows album again. This is what around Britain is supposed to be like.

Night, all.