31st May '13

An interesting time....

Firstly a couple of days ago we said goodbye to Allison and Dave and here they are at Bradford Marina getting a pump out before going on down to Bath.

Now back to yesterday. We had a quiet day with Paddy and he's much better although not likely to do any serious long distance for a few days yet. Exhausted with a day of doing little we started to pack up at 10.30 for bed when we heard a boat engine - at THAT time of night - accompanied I have to say with a lot of shouting and dog barking, just what we needed. We then heard rumpus right in front of us and it was obvious that they were trying to moor - there wasn't a lot of room between us and the bridge but a short boat could manage it and we presumed this is what happened. A bit later Paddy makes going out noises, which is unusual once we've gone to bed but after the day he'd had, I felt kindly disposed and so put on dressing gown and took him out.

It looked as if there was a boat moored up across our bow as I could see a navigation light seemingly in the middle of the canal and sure enough when I got in I looked out of the window to see the stern of a boat. I slept badly after that!

This morning we investigated what was happening...

and thanks to a feeble connection after 25 minutes the photos won't upload! anyway, there was a small boat ahead of us (out of license for a year I might add) and one tied up to it with the back section next to us. We were not impressed, there were two small motorbikes alongside just to round it off nicely.

Anyway while we were having breakfast they moved the one overlapping us, by taking a rope over us and hauling it along, not asking us if we mind, remembering that we have a very expensive satellite seeker dome and a pram cover to negotiate. They moored behind us and we got off as soon as we could, glad to get away from them.

THEN after stopping to fill up with water we met a hire boat going up the lock in front so let them go in first and then I followed, Lock 19 near Seend by the way, if you're in the area, and we got stuck! The lock gate on my side didn't open properly and somehow we managed to get jammed. We tried everything we could think of but to no avail (photo available at a later date).

Eventually I rang CRT and they finally sent two men down and between them and John and me gunning the engine in reverse, they managed to haul us out. Their initial reaction was that oh yes that gate is a bit tricky. GRRRRR. It was one of those 'if' situations. If they'd gone in and moved over ahead of the open gate I'd have gone in OK. If I'd gone in first they could have fitted in without it being a problem. All very well in hindsight.

Anyway, now we are at Cells Green near the Three Magpies and waiting for Jess and Ju to arrive later. A pub meal (I have no supplies until we get to Devises) and an early start and hopefully the sunshine will last. It's been glorious today.

No blog tomorrow as we'll be flat out after the day but hopefully Sunday will give me a better signal and I'll put the missing photos on.