About Me

My photo
The name describes my demeanour and voice! I love narrowboating and that is why this blog is mainly about the boat and our interaction with it. I have been keeping a log for Sonflower ever since we bought her and moved onto her as our main residence. Some incidents in our boating life have been hilarious, some scary and some down right dangerous. I cannot tell what will come in the future but you can now share them! The crew are an 'ordinary' couple. The Best Mate and I.

Thursday, 19 July 2007

Special Trip for Special People

What a lovely day! As I sit in the warm in the middle of a thunderstorm regretting leaving the houdini hatch open, I am reflecting on the lovely day we had today.

We were hosts to Family Group 10 from Frank Wise School in Banbury for a little (two hour) cruise. We managed to get the seven children and four helpers aboard and after the usual safety briefing we settled in for their first experience of narrowboating. Three of the children took a hand at the tiller and enjoyed the experience of action and reaction as Sonflower responded to their movements. The joy on their faces and the thanks expressed by them was a great blessing. For one though, the throttle held a fascination and her helper was very quick as she dived for it to increase the engine revs considerably. This child also had an obsessional need to remove willow leaves from the deck. This help was willingly accepted. It is amazing how many leaves appear when you aren't looking for them!

One of the adults played a tiny guitar and led a few tunes to entertain the crew and after drinks and fruit aboard they climbed back into their minibus to return to school for lunch.

It was good to be able to give this small, but worthwhile, experience to these special people and their helpers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
eeyore said...

I was so thrilled to get a comment!
BUT.. the deleted comment above was an advert for a get rich quick scheme. I am a voluntary pauper so have no need of their $3500 a month. If you do they'll find another way to get in touch with you.