HPDBC Chapter 40 Silt
Chapter 40 Silt
Three days after the on-site meeting, the waterway in front of the service station broke down.
The problem isn't with the ship, it's with the sea.
In the past two years, more ships have been passing through the stone channel leading out of Moon Island Wharf. The silt stirred up by the propellers has been pushed to both sides year by year, slowly piling up a shallow beach on the outside of the stone channel.
It's invisible at high tide, but it's exposed when the tide recedes. The gray-black mudflats are mixed with broken shells and seaweed, and they gleam with a salty, fishy sheen when the sun shines on them.
In the summer, this shallow area was small and could not be a problem for fishing boats to enter and exit. However, after the autumn flood season, the tide changed its direction, and the shallow area moved several meters into the middle of the channel overnight. At low tide, the water depth in the shallowest part was less than a foot.
First, the bottom of Old Chen's boat scraped when it came in.
Old Chen stood at the bow of the boat, reaching down with a bamboo pole. Half of the pole went in, but it was all mud.
He slowly steered the boat in, and after getting onto the dock, he squatted down next to the mooring bollard and smoked for a while. Then he walked to the service station entrance and called out, "Master Fang!"
Old Fang was changing the gasket on the water pump bearing in the workshop when he heard the shout. He looked up and, without even wiping the oil off his hands, followed Old Chen to the dock.
He squatted on the reef and looked at the channel. The tide was receding, and the shallows outside the rock channel were exposed above the water. The area was much larger than last month. The narrowest part of the channel was squeezed by silt and was only half the original width.
Old Fang looked at it for a while, then stood up, patted the gravel off his pants, and called Jiang Haiping over to take a look.
Jiang Haiping squatted down next to him and looked in the direction Lao Fang was pointing. Under the sunlight, the edge of the silted beach was already close to the center line of the waterway. A fully loaded transport ship had a deep draft, and if it deviated even slightly from this section of the waterway, it would run aground.
"We need to dredge it." Jiang Haiping stood up and handed the wrench he was holding to Ah Hai. "Before anything serious happens, let's clear the channel first."
After the news of the dredging spread, fishermen from Moon Island came to the service station one after another.
Old Chen was the first to arrive. He squatted by the dock with a shovel, saying that his boat had scraped the bottom that morning and that if the silt wasn't cleared, who would dare to sail out again?
Old Ma followed behind, carrying a shovel. He said that the autumn fishing season had just ended and the spring fishing season hadn't arrived yet, so he should take advantage of the free time to clear the waterway to avoid any trouble during the fishing season.
Old Sun also arrived, carrying a bamboo basket. He said he couldn't do heavy work dredging, but he could pick up small stones with the basket.
Hong Xiaobing ran back to Hongjia Island and called a few young men to come over by ferry. Each of them carried a shovel and a crowbar.
Old Zhou pushed the sampan over, which was loaded with several shovels and bamboo baskets.
A-Guang carried a box of enamel mugs and a bucket of cooled boiled water from the old parts warehouse and placed them on the embankment. Lin Xiu-E brought out a tray of seaweed buns from the kitchen and said that people who do heavy work need to eat their fill.
Jiang Haiping stood on the dock and divided the dredging team into two groups.
One group followed Lao Fang and A Hai, responsible for dredging the silt in the middle of the channel, deepening the shoals and widening the channel.
Another group followed him and Ding Haisheng, responsible for clearing the reef fragments along the edge of the channel. Those fragments were washed in by the tide in the last two years and were mixed in with the silt. The shovels made a clanging sound when they were shoveled on, and if they weren't cleared away, the bottom of the boat would rub against them.
He took off his shoes and stepped into the mud. The mud was grayish-black and sank softly up to his calves. It had been in the sun all morning and had a hard crust on the surface, but it was still wet underneath when he stepped on it.
He took the shovel and poked it deeper. The shovel hit something hard and made a dull thud.
Another piece of reef fragment, slightly smaller than the last one, was stuck in the silt at the edge of the channel, half of it sticking out and half buried in the mud.
"There are rocks here." Jiang Haiping planted a shovel next to the rocks, squatted down, and used his hands to dig out the silt around the rocks.
Ding Haisheng walked over with a crowbar, inserted the crowbar into the bottom of the reef, and the two of them pressed down at the same time. The reef moved slightly but did not move.
Old Chen came over to help, and the three of them pressed the crowbar together. The rock loosened and turned out of the silt, splashing mud and water that covered half of Jiang Haiping's trouser leg.
Hong Xiaobing and A Guang lifted the rock and carried it onto the sampan. Several pieces of rock of varying sizes were already piled up on the sampan. After they were cleared, they would be transported to the rocky beach for use in repairing the boat.
In the middle of the waterway, Lao Fang, along with A Hai and several fishermen, dug down shovel by shovel.
The silt in the shallows had accumulated for half a year. The surface layer was grayish-black silt, but when you dug down half a foot, it turned into yellowish-brown sand mixed with broken seashells and oyster shells.
The shovel made a crunching sound as it scraped against the shells, a sound that made my teeth ache.
Old Fang held a cigarette in his mouth but didn't light it. He shoveled the sand steadily and accurately, throwing the shoveled sand into bamboo baskets. Hong Xiaobing and his men carried the baskets out one by one and dumped them on the open ground behind the rocky beach.
Several piles of silt were stacked on that open space, waiting to be dried and then mixed with gravel for use as rafts.
Lin's father steered the Ping An boat over and parked it beside the channel. The boat's water pump was connected to a rubber hose, and water was sprayed onto the reefs on both sides of the channel. The high-pressure water flow loosened the mud and sand accumulated in the crevices of the reefs, making it much easier to shovel.
Lin Xiu'e's younger brother stood at the bow of the boat, holding onto the water pipe. The spray from the jet of water was dispersed by the sea breeze and landed on the people dredging nearby, feeling cool and refreshing.
Old Chen wiped his face and said it was fine, it was just cool off.
By noon, the sun was high in the sky, and the dock was gleaming brightly.
Lin Xiu'e brought the seaweed buns and fish ball soup to the dock, and several people squatted on the rocks to eat.
Old Chen took a bite of the bun and said it tasted better than usual; it seems that working is an appetite stimulant.
Ah-Guang squatted down beside me with a bowl of fish ball soup and asked why this silted-up area wasn't this bad before.
Old Fang lit a cigarette, took a puff, and said that in the past, there were few ships in the dock channel, and the tide would come back and forth twice a day, clearing the channel on its own.
Later, when a dam was built here, the direction of the tide changed, and silt gradually accumulated.
Previously, the problem was not addressed at its root; now, it needs to be cleared out every year.
Jiang Haiping listened from the side and kept these words in mind, planning to check the waterway in advance every year before the autumn and spring flood seasons.
Let's continue this afternoon.
After shoveling away several cubic meters of silt, the solid reef beneath the outer edge of the channel was finally exposed.
Old Fang squatted at the front, touched the surface of the reef with his hand, and said that this was an old reef, sturdy, and that the bottom of the boat wouldn't have to worry about scraping against it in the future.
After the bottom of the reef was cleared, the narrowest part of the channel was more than twice as wide as in the morning, and a 20-ton fishing boat could no longer be restricted from entering and exiting at high tide.
The next task was to stabilize the sand base under the reef fragments: Ding Haisheng used a crowbar to repeatedly compact the sand layers he had discovered, and A Guang built an additional gravel retaining wall on the side near the stone trough.
Jiang Haiping squatted at the end of the embankment and tapped the stone surface with his fist to make sure that it wouldn't loosen before straightening up.
As evening fell, the tide slowly rose, submerging the newly cleared reef bottom, the shallows that were still exposed in the morning, and the piles of rubble on both sides of the channel.
The Ping An took a test lap off the dock, and its waterline remained steady without the hull scraping against anything.
Old Chen squatted by the dock watching the Ping An ship sail past, saying he felt relieved now, as the ship could set sail tomorrow.
After finishing work, everyone went their separate ways.
Old Chen carried his shovel back home, Old Ma followed behind, and Old Sun carried his bamboo basket as they slowly walked along the seawall, the setting sun casting a long shadow over him.
Hong Xiaobing and A Guang unloaded the rocks from the sampan and piled them at the base of the service station's courtyard wall, saying they would keep them for future boat repairs.
Jiang Haiping squatted on the dock, washing the mud off his hands and looking at the newly cleared water in the channel.
The tide was slowly rising, and the water in the channel was dyed orange-red by the setting sun. The shallow beach outside the stone trough had disappeared, replaced by a deep waterway that allowed a fully loaded fishing boat to sail in safely.
Ah Guang carefully counted the shovels used for dredging and put them into the used parts warehouse. He also made a note in the register: Several shovels, used for waterway dredging, returned in good condition.
Lin Xiu'e brought out the last pot of fish ball soup and distributed it to the few people who were still busy. Lao Fang squatted at the workshop entrance with a bowl in his hand and said that this pot of soup was more fragrant than usual today.
Lin Xiu'e said it wasn't the soup that smelled good, but that she was hungry from working.
Jiang Haiping took the bowl and took a sip. The sea breeze blew over, carrying the salty and fishy smell of seaweed that had been drying on the rocky beach all day.
The waterway has been cleared, and the Ping An can set sail as usual tomorrow. The next batch of refurbished aircraft parts should also be delivered from the seafood company tomorrow.
He returned the enamel bowl to Lin Xiu'e, stood up, and walked towards the workshop.