Boat uncovered

First trip on Winter Solstice, up the lake from Mountshannon on a summery evening. Joe had been replacing filters on the engines, but had only done the port side when I cycled down to see how he was getting on.
'We could take her out tonight anyway,' he said. 'While the weather's good.'
Not the first time we've travelled on one engine.We were pulling out, nice and steady, all the canvas covers off except for the one on the coachhouse roof, which was flapping alarmingly.
'The cover's flapping alarmingly,' I said to Joe.
'It'll be OK! Don't worry!'
I put the throttles forward and picked up a bit of speed, the wind got under the front of the canvas and lifted it high, peeling it back towards me.
'Joe! The cover's coming off!'
He was on the deck and rushing forward. The boat slowed, the engine ticking over gently while he grappled with the unwieldy cloth. Thank goodness it wasn't windy. Finally we were secure again and set off, rounding Cribby Island where the white-tailed eagles nested last year. The cover gave an experimental flutter, teasing me, then settled down, behaving itself until we turned into Dromaan Harbour forty-five minutes later. 

There she is, tucked into the far corner. 

We put her there, nose in, because of the one engine business. It's always the last bit that's tricky with one engine out of action, trying to get the boat to turn against itself, port engine pushing to the right, wheel hard over to the left to counteract it. There were two sailors having a barbecue who came to catch the ropes, their faces giving away their thoughts - 'look at these incompetents coming in. Woman at the wheel, what d'you expect.'
'We've one engine out!' I cried. 'It's tricky!'

It was here we removed the cover from the coachhouse roof a couple of days later, before the rains came back. 

She doesn't look too bad in the photo, but close up you see the varnish peeling and the paint looking scruffy. At least one side of the deck looks good.

We moved Winter Solstice to her new berth on Thursday last week, just up the lake from Dromaan. Here she is in Holland's newly done-up harbour.

And again.

Lovely part  of the lake. Halfway up with a choice of destinations. We popped over to Domineer to the Whiskey Still for dinner that night. We'll be doing that again.

The car park is back in Mountshannon

Finally the waters subsided and we were able to get to the boat again. She was fine - floating pontoons are excellent things.

There's sand on the pathways, rippled as though on a beach from the waves that were battering Mountshannon over the last few weeks. A tide mark of reeds marks the high water mark. And there's something missing. Spot the difference:

The sculpture has gone from the end of the little pier, knocked by wind and water power. There's just a couple of blocks and buckled tarmac. We've seen all the pictures of terrible damage on the coast, but hard to believe that can happen on a lake.

We finally have the pathway back, but the beach area is still under water.

The water level came above the bottom of the barriers only last week. The Freeman just beyond the barrier is over the harbour wall.

Still a bit wet, but the harbour wall is back.

The Freeman is back in the water - it's behind these two sailing boats whose deep keels kept them off the wall.

I'm almost able to imagine boating again now with these blue skies and still waters.