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Waking up with no connection to land

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I know I almost promised a report from Greece today, but it will not be. Peter of course has lots to tell from his trip to Greece, but that will come next week. What happened in our houseboat marina yesterday is too dramatic not to be told. I woke up early to strange noises ... and soon realised that this morning we were moored with no connection to land.

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Being woken up by strange noises

I fell asleep late on Friday night and was therefore very tired at 6am on Saturday morning. But those strange noises couldn't be ignored! Especially when you are home alone and living on a houseboat... Squeak, squeak, thump, thump and then .... bhamm. I pulled on a dressing gown and peered out.

And what did I see there? Well, there was one of my neighbours (also in a dressing gown) hauling a paddle board on a rope right in front of the bow of our boat. What the ....? I ran outside and could hardly believe the explanation I was given.

Part of the jetty has sunk.

"Part of the jetty has sunk," the neighbour explained. "There is no connection to land." This alone was hard to understand... but the paddle board, how did it come into play?

Well, another neighbour needed to get to work and had used the paddle board, which was then pulled back by a rope (and hit the bow of our houseboat, waking me up). I was tired and wondered if this was the moment I lost my mind, but no, it wasn't!

Pampas D-brygga
At 06:00 in the morning - the connection to land is completely broken (The sunken house is a small office).

Temporary solution: emergency bridge

The neighbours called the Pampas marina staff who quickly arrived, even though they don't normally work on Saturdays. They helped us raise the emergency bridge between D dock (our dock) and A dock (the other dock with houseboats) so we could get to shore... without a paddle board.

Nödbro
Pampas marina staff arrive to hoist the emergency bridge
Nödbro Pampas marina
The emergency bridge is in place!

What happens next?

The Pampas marina staff worked hard all day to get the boats that were pulled into the water. The plan is then to try to get a temporary jetty up so we don't have to use the emergency bridge. It blocks the inlet and has to be hoisted up and down all the time to let boats in and out. I spent most of yesterday running back and forth trying to understand what happened ...

Pampas marina brygga sjunkit
This road is not good for getting ashore ... (And no, the boat is NOT for us residents!).
It is no longer possible to go home this way ...
Pampas marina utsikt
Beautiful view last night!

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