BLISS ON A BOAT

“There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats”
Ratty, Wind in the Willows

s a certain aquatic rodent famously points out, there is endless, unrivalled enjoyment to be had when out on the water. Kenneth Grahame’s Ratty was, of course, referring specifically to river boats, and calm rivers at that: type-one fun, when the activity is indulgently, almost somnambulantly pleasurable from start to finish, with no rapids to speed the pulse and little in the way of physical effort required. Sunny days on the river when – aside from putting in the occasional oar stroke, pole