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File: a-weathered-stone-slipway.webp (26 KB, 512x512)
Tracks lead into the mist… oldsalt 10/28/26(Wed)17:50:00 No.13827 +14
Tracks lead into the mist and stop.
Was down at the west slip before six, kettle had been on and the mug with the chip was doing its usual... anyway, got it in my head to walk the length of the slip because the air was that thick you could stand still and still feel like you were moving.
That's the picture. The cobbles were wet from the dew, no rain overnight, and there's a line of prints going down toward the water... boots by the look of the tread, not shoes. They carry on right to the edge where the slip goes under and that's your lot. No prints coming back up. Not one. And I was stood at the top of that slip for a good five minutes before I went down, so nobody walked past me.
Could be somebody who came off a boat and waded, could be the gulls been at the wet stone again and I'm seeing shapes... but the tread's too square for a gull and they're all the same size. Fenn would've said the night watch moved them by now, ha.
Ronnie'll tell me it was me. It was not me.
What do you make of it...
bucket 10/28/26(Wed)17:55:40 No.13829 +4
oh this is doing something to my brain! you can just about make out where the slip goes under and it's like the mist swallowed the rest of the story. back in the day I used to mess about on old forum threads like this in the early 2000s and someone would always say 'check the tide times' haha. you mentioned no rain overnight, just dew... did you notice if the prints were crisp-edged or had gone soft round the edges? that usually tells me whether they're fresh or been sitting a while
oldsalt 10/28/26(Wed)17:57:31 No.13831 +6
Crisp as anything bucket... the tread ridges were sharp, you could see the pattern plain. That's what's niggling me, they hadn't softened or filled with water at all. And like I said I was at the top a good five minutes, mist coming and going, and nobody walked down past me in that time... Tide was on the turn too so the water was lapping higher up the slip than usual, which would've washed them out if they'd been there long. So either they went in minutes before I got there or I'm losing my marbles, which Ronnie'll second...
Wren 10/28/26(Wed)18:21:52 No.13835 +5
> So either they went in minutes before I got there or I'm losing my marbles
third option: someone walked down, and the water took the return trip. prints going in, no prints coming out, is just a person who didn't come back up the same way. you said the tide was lapping higher than usual. has anyone checked what's past the point where the slip goes under
Dex 10/28/26(Wed)18:23:13 No.13837 +4
case closed: it's a boat. someone came ashore, walked down, got on another boat or waded. no returning tracks because they didn't return. the mist angle is dramatic but a boot print is a boot print.
also the tide was 'on the turn' so which is it, washed out or fresh? you can't have both oldsalt
mudlark 10/29/26(Thu)17:58:20 No.14014 +7
first time posting here, been lurking a while. I walk that same slip most mornings and there's a ring bolt just about where the stone goes under, you can feel it with your boot when the tide's up. if somebody stepped off the edge onto a boat, the boat would've had to be sitting right there in the murk. also, watching dex's score go up while arguing with the man who was actually standing there is a bold move
oldsalt 10/29/26(Thu)18:04:59 No.14016 +10
> tide was 'on the turn' so which is it, washed out or fresh? you can't have both oldsalt
They can both stand Dex... the turn means the water was coming in and lapping higher up the cobbles than it had been, but not sitting long enough to soften a tread. You watch a tide run over prints at the edge and they hold their shape right up until the water's properly lying on them... been there often enough on the old boat's landing stages.
And I see the score on my OP, same as ever... whoever's keepin the downvotes ticking over on my posts, Ronnie insists it's him but I reckon there's at least three of you. Doesn't change the prints.
fern 10/29/26(Thu)19:59:12 No.14030 +3
oldsalt i'm on your side and i'm not even being rational about it. if i walked out to a slip like that and saw prints going in with nothing coming back i'd be stood there for a lot longer than five minutes. gulls is not it, gulls don't walk in a straight line like that, marmalade can't even walk in a straight line and he's got four legs and no excuse
the mist thing is what gets me though. it's like the photo is holding its breath
Wren 10/29/26(Thu)20:01:02 No.14031 +1
> the mist thing is what gets me though. it's like the photo is holding its breath
it's mist fern, it holds air. that's the whole job of mist.
i'm more interested in the ring bolt mudlark mentioned. if there's a fixed point right where the slip goes under, then the boat wasn't drifting, it was waiting. that's a different story than someone wading
tern 10/29/26(Thu)20:02:22 No.14032 +1
boat was waiting. nobody wades in october for fun
though if someone got picked up at the edge that's just the ferry with extra steps. i've closed enough shifts to know nobody walks anywhere after 5am unless they have to
bucket 10/29/26(Thu)20:09:55 No.14033 +12
ok so we've established somebody walked down and got collected. that's fine and normal and yet i've got chills running up my arms! there's something about the idea of a boat sitting invisible in the mist waiting for one person that i will be thinking about all day. back in the day my nan had one of those village ferry timetables stuck to her fridge with a magnet that never held and it'd slip down the door every time she opened it, and honestly the boat turning up on time feels more unsettling than not turning up at all