Ray's Boat

Seldon Scott

Ray's a nice guy. He has a nice boat. He built it himself in his garden using money he'd gotten after being made redundant many years ago. I've eaten shrimp and fish he's caught from this boat many times. I've taken photos of his boat many more times. The shrimp and fish have always been good, the photos, well, sometimes good sometimes not.

I saw Ray on Wednesday and he told me that for one reason or another he hadn't taken the boat out this year. I knew that, it was still in it's winter moorings and I hadn't seen him tootling about, casting nets, hauling nets and the other stuff shrimpers get up to when they're out shrimping.

Anyway, Ray told me he was moving the boat to it's summer moorings with an eye to getting back in the shrimping groove. Last night I had a walk down there and sure enough there was Ray's boat, waiting for its first trawl of the year. And there I was taking another photo of Ray's boat, imagining the taste of those fresh, rough picked shrimp and the occasional Dover Sole that works it's way into his nets, the ones he sells for virtually nothing.

Ray's a nice guy with a nice boat but his produce is wonderful. Shrimp on hot buttered toast, or maybe mixed in with rice, fantastic!

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