We left Birmingham on a lovely wet day, my brain must be 'addled, in the rain! heading for the Bluebell Cider House. Jill is still suffering from a very sore back so she was under orders to do very little, that included not walking the dogs for miles and miles, would she listen to me..No.. It rained and rained so eventually she gave up and got onboard, which also allowed me to apply more RPM.
After a quiet night in, yes in, not in the Inn, we set of to to do the Lapworth flight, Jill was again under orders and was playing the game, ahh, that gives me a problem, very little boat movements and my 1st obstacles were the two lift bridges at Hockley Heath, 1st one no problem, nose the boat upto the bridge on the offside, run the gunnel take front rope off with me lift bridge, bring boat through take stern rope off, drop bridge, got this cracked. Then to the second lift bridge, this was not going to be so easy, no way of getting off the bow onto the bridge, wellll then I was rescued by a damsel in distress, no not Jill, a single handed lady boater comming from the opposite direction, she suggested she opens the bridge for me, I take my boat throught tie up and then go and lift the bridge for her, Job done, but hey she then had a brain wave, as only woman can, she says would I be Ok to bring her boat through. Well could I refuse, it meant that I didn't have to go through winding the bridge, I love the way womans brains work......sometimes.. Jill says the lady boater wasn't in distress.
Then onto the Lapworth flight, no problem down the 1st two, then two hire boats pulled out in front of me as I'm comming out of the second heading for the 3rd, oh well I'm single handed they'll probably be faster than me, my language was not repeatable, oh well it's a lovely day to dawdle, the two on the boat infront had only done two locks before and I easily kept up with them down the flight, Jill was feeling a little better half way down and decided that her conscience wouldn't let me do the flight on my own, then she realised that infact was not the best idea and dissapeared back onto the boat, having emptied the dogs. On reaching the penultimate lock a head pops up from behind the bridge and says you can come through we're watering, Well it was only Charlie off NB Felloneous Mongoose, what's happening here, my brains working overtime (We had wintered in Brum, Iced in and had met Charlie and Delorious on several occasions) and the couple on the hire boat infront were infact his Son and Daughter in law. We caught up on life going through what I thought was the last lock, then Charlie dispatched his Grandson to set the last lock down onto the cut between the GU and Stratford. I was now a little tired and decided we would stop for a couple of days at the Picnic Site opposite the The Cock Horse at Rowington.
The Picnic site was quite busy and I made a snap decision to move on, then saw a space put MR into full reverse, she kicked on a shoal nosed right and nearly hit the boat I was about to moor behind, Well you wouldn't believe it, Kevin jumps out of the back hatch of his boat NB Nobody Knows and says "you look like you need a hand" smiling, well it had been 18 months since we had last met, Iced in at Great Heywood. "What you at?" I says, well so much for a couple of days off, Kevin was looking to pair up with someone as Jackie, his wife, had hurt her hand coming down the Lapworth, so plans made and it was off to The Hatton in the morning.
After a quiet night in, yes in, not in the Inn, we set of to to do the Lapworth flight, Jill was again under orders and was playing the game, ahh, that gives me a problem, very little boat movements and my 1st obstacles were the two lift bridges at Hockley Heath, 1st one no problem, nose the boat upto the bridge on the offside, run the gunnel take front rope off with me lift bridge, bring boat through take stern rope off, drop bridge, got this cracked. Then to the second lift bridge, this was not going to be so easy, no way of getting off the bow onto the bridge, wellll then I was rescued by a damsel in distress, no not Jill, a single handed lady boater comming from the opposite direction, she suggested she opens the bridge for me, I take my boat throught tie up and then go and lift the bridge for her, Job done, but hey she then had a brain wave, as only woman can, she says would I be Ok to bring her boat through. Well could I refuse, it meant that I didn't have to go through winding the bridge, I love the way womans brains work......sometimes.. Jill says the lady boater wasn't in distress.
Then onto the Lapworth flight, no problem down the 1st two, then two hire boats pulled out in front of me as I'm comming out of the second heading for the 3rd, oh well I'm single handed they'll probably be faster than me, my language was not repeatable, oh well it's a lovely day to dawdle, the two on the boat infront had only done two locks before and I easily kept up with them down the flight, Jill was feeling a little better half way down and decided that her conscience wouldn't let me do the flight on my own, then she realised that infact was not the best idea and dissapeared back onto the boat, having emptied the dogs. On reaching the penultimate lock a head pops up from behind the bridge and says you can come through we're watering, Well it was only Charlie off NB Felloneous Mongoose, what's happening here, my brains working overtime (We had wintered in Brum, Iced in and had met Charlie and Delorious on several occasions) and the couple on the hire boat infront were infact his Son and Daughter in law. We caught up on life going through what I thought was the last lock, then Charlie dispatched his Grandson to set the last lock down onto the cut between the GU and Stratford. I was now a little tired and decided we would stop for a couple of days at the Picnic Site opposite the The Cock Horse at Rowington.
The Picnic site was quite busy and I made a snap decision to move on, then saw a space put MR into full reverse, she kicked on a shoal nosed right and nearly hit the boat I was about to moor behind, Well you wouldn't believe it, Kevin jumps out of the back hatch of his boat NB Nobody Knows and says "you look like you need a hand" smiling, well it had been 18 months since we had last met, Iced in at Great Heywood. "What you at?" I says, well so much for a couple of days off, Kevin was looking to pair up with someone as Jackie, his wife, had hurt her hand coming down the Lapworth, so plans made and it was off to The Hatton in the morning.
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| NB Nobody Knows at The Cape |
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