Spring tides, Autumn nights

So, there's another equinox gone south. I expected the associated gales to turn up. Strange phenomenon, no earthly reason but it's often the way. This year fairly quiet though and ever since, on our peaceful mooring, the weather has been quite the indian summer. Trees are a-turning but we've had hot days which has extended our time here and we've made the most. Night time is the thing. On board it gets cold. Soon as the sun dips below the horizon, which is increasingly and substantially earlier now, the temperature drops like a lead from the ratlines. You're soon sent below for another jumper and then a coat, as the breeze chuckles across from the creek opposite. Hot chocolate or thick black coffee becomes the sundowner, laced with whatever is in the galley locker, which today is calvados. We met an old man, a farmer, from some storm jib sized small-holding east of Gouesnache. He had his pigs, geese and chickens but his pride was his orchard. Actually the whole area, from the river here, to Concarneau, is big in apples, pears and sure as nature intended - cider. Our Monsieur was a cider man but had a dispensation, a perk if you prefer, he was allowed to make, that is distill, calvados. The dark golden eau de vie that one, with the aid of a little handed down knowledge and ancient cast iron machinery, can brew from Fouesnant's best cider apples. I'd gone off looking for him after buying some of his bottles from a market stall. I reckoned that a deal could be done for bulk, though his idea of bulk and mine differed. I thought to line the bilges of The Promise, he thought I was from a supermarket. He did however offer me a tipple of the serious stuff, and after another, I thought that this would take up less space on the boat and was a drink worth studying. Sadly for me he wasn't allowed to sell me any, his 'Dispensation' you understand. He did offer me a couple as a gift which was quite legal. Back on the boat, the crew has lit the wood burner and trimmed the wicks. I watched the last rooks flap home and the blue mist creep across the half tide. It'll be a high one again tonight. The full moon and ol' Jupiter will make sure of that. No wind though and a cosy light seeps from the washboards and a wave of warmth

wraps itself about you as you descend the companion way steps. Pass me a glass my girl and shove up.

Browned off...

I believe the term, "Browned off" comes from the process of preserving steelwork with controlled RUST. In centuries past, musketeers and carabiners would take the exposed metal parts of their muzzle loaders and treat them with a rust accelerating compound. This obviously dulls shiney new steel but a soldier or hunter didn't want the sun reflecting off their gun barrels. This actually helps keep metal good and I have a percussion lock musket from the 1800's which testifies. Once browned off, the steel can be oiled or waxed to a lovely deep patina. I say this because there is a glut of stainless and bronze parts available for boats today but I have a friend in Maine who fits his punts out in iron and browns them off in the traditional way. Look great and is easily maintained. Mild steel is workable, long lasting, good looking and CHEAP. Boatmen, you don't have to spend your hard earned Reales on mass produced chrome. Find a gunsmith and get browned off.