We've heard this saying quite a bit during the pandemic.

In case you don't know [we had no idea whatsoever], it's officially National Boating Week. So it's an awfully good time to think about boat sayings. How about this one: "A rising tide lifts all boats". [Hopefully that one cruises our way shortly]

Boating, we must say, is a pretty relaxing activity. Loads of Hunter Region folks know this to be true, especially those who like to cruise the waters of Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie.

We're not too sure if cruising on a coal ship has quite the same feel. Probably not.

But we did find ourselves nodding in agreement when we read that boating was good for you. It all makes sense now. This is why Rod Stewart and Enya sang about it.

Discover Boating Australia understandably referred to the research of marine biologist Wallace Nichols, while drawing attention to this topic during Boating Week.

Dr Nichols' work has shown that "wild waters" provide benefits for body and mind. He believes the ocean and waterways have vast "cognitive, emotional, psychological, social, physical and spiritual benefits".

A study in the US found that 84 per cent of parents think their kids would be more likely to unplug from their phones and laptops on a boat trip versus a road trip. [Right then, let's get all kids, everywhere, into boating]

While on the water, those feel-good hormones like dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin apparently kick in.

In his acclaimed book, Blue Mind, Dr Nichols offered a paradigm shifting "blueprint" for a better life on "this blue marble we call home".

The ocean and all waterways - including lakes, rivers and wetlands - were "critical to human health and wellbeing", as they were "a wellspring of happiness and relaxation, romance, peace and freedom, play and creativity, learning and memory, innovation and insight, elation and nostalgia, confidence and solitude, wonder and awe, empathy and compassion, reverence and beauty".

Plus, as the people in this photo show, being on the water is good old-fashioned fun.

This from Waratah West's Fred Saunders: "Australia Post intends to start delivering letters only three days a week from next month.

"Well it could not be any slower than what it is now. On Friday, September 4, I posted a letter at about 10.45am at Waratah Village Post Office addressed to our own address.

"Why, you ask? Well for more years than I care to remember, I have sent a birthday card and a wedding anniversary card to my wife. The card arrived on Thursday, September 25, two days after her birthday.

"This morning [Monday], I received a letter from my Newcastle-based health fund that was postmarked September 18.

"I mentioned the card incident to someone close to the Post Office and they said: 'Don't you know mail picked up on Friday goes to Sydney before it comes back here?'."

Fred was left scratching his head over a "round trip of at least 350 kilometres to travel 5 kilometres".

Next time, we reckon Fred will just put the letters straight in his own mailbox. It might be less romantic, but at least his wife Margaret will get them on time.

When do you get a good deal on a boat? When there's a sail on. How do you make a boat feel better? Give it some Vitamin Sea.

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