Dear editor,

On Monday, Aug. 19, my wife and I were enjoying a boating day and had taken out 18 ft. aluminum hull boat over to Denman Island.

We anchored the boat to the shoreline and then went for an enjoyable beachcombing walk. Having mistakenly read the tide chart we were surprised and dismayed to find out boat completely beached as the tide had gone out in the meantime. To add to the stress of the situation I was scheduled to work that afternoon, but now we were stranded. The boat was far too heavy for us to push alone down to the waterline. Thankfully there were other people on the beach and soon enough we had eight volunteers to help us. Placing driftwood logs behind and under the boat and with everyone pushing together, we managed to slide the boat down the beach and into the water after a good half an hours work. I was so relieved to see my boat afloat again and I actually made it to work on time with about 1 minute to spare.

I鈥檇 like to give a hearty thank you to the good-natured and friendly people on the beach that gave us a 鈥渉eave ho!鈥� I really appreciate the help.

Greg Porteous