PUSHING the boat out

What on earth had got into Susan's husband? This wasn't the man she'd fallen in love with

- Amanda Batham

Susan stood nervously on the slipway while a female attendant gave her husband, Nick, a final run-down. She was using words like ‘hull’, ‘cleat’ and ‘gunwale’ – telling him how to moor the boat using a half-hitch and how to manipulate the tiller lines. None of this meant anything to Susan. She stood rigidly at the side of the water, staring at the ducks, shifting impatiently in her wellington boots while Nick nodded his head vigorously under an oilskin hat. Susan was pretty confident that he was still none the wiser.

Why had she let Nick talk her into this, Susan wondered, not for the first time that morning. And what on earth had got into her husband? It had been at least 10 years since they’d been out on the river, and then they’d been with Paul and Jessica, both experienced boaters.

As Susan and Nick finally clambered aboard, Susan struggled to steady herself as the boat swayed alarmingly in the brackish water. There was a lot of clattering and grabbing between her and Nick before they finally plonked themselves face to face onto the boat’s wooden benches.

Susan noted the attendant’s expression shift from mild amusement to genuine concern as she pushed them off from the jetty with their flask of hot tea, a bag of sausage rolls and a first-aid kit – the lock schedules and fluvial-flow guidelines flapping in Nick’s hand.

‘No need to fret,’ Nick said as he wrestled with the tiller and saw Susan’s perturbed expression. ‘This stretch of the Thames is non-tidal. We’ll only come across small recreational craft this high up the river.’

Susan wasn’t reassured as she grabbed an oar and prodded half-heartedly at the water.