All boats need fenders, they are like death and taxes, facts of life that cause stress at the most inconvenient times.
When we are sailing salty waters we seem to get away with six at the most, but, in this canal, we have sixteen of the bloated beasties........ why? you might ask, it's not that my boat driving has got worse, if anything having GD in such a tight place has sharpened me up. No...... it is the gaggle of brain dead hire boat drivers that you get on the Midi, from all walks of life and all corners of the globe. I think it is a requirement for hiring that any sign of neural activity is a disqualifier.
What is worse, two of my largest fenders took it on themselves to get absolutely filthy over the winter, the rest are ok but these two...minging doesn't cover it. The rest are ok; weird! It took an hour of scrubbing with a variety of proprietary chemicals to get these two even half-way respectable.
What am I going to do with ten extra fenders once the mast goes back up in Pauillac? (answers in a plain envelope please - usual fiver for the most imaginative)