Bank Holiday Boating

What an 'orrible day!

But...... having complained in the past about BW and others overstaying on popular moorings we had to move today from the 48 hour moorings and return to our home mooring.

The wind was playing havoc with boats in the narrows of the town centre and things blew off the roof of the boat and into the canal.The moorer opposite had lost the coolie hat from the chimney and we have a chimney lid that is probably now in the cut. C'est la vie. As we talked I noticed that a footrest that I had reclaimed from the canal two years ago was again floating down the waterway, too far away to retrieve with a boat hook.

I pointed it out to the other boater. He recognised our boat name and introduced himself as our new next door neighbour. He was the other lucky winner in the recent auction of two moorings at our mooring site.

We had to move and so returned to the mooring about an hour after he arrived there.

The weather was awful. Everyone agreed but there were a lot of empty spaces. We were all out somewhere. Our other neighbour was bemoaning the fact that his plans to grind out rust on his roof had been scuppered. A chat with our new neighbour revealed that all was not rosy on his boat either as he had discovered an elusive plumbing leak by finding water in the bilges and an empty water tank (not the best way to discover it but at least he knew of it before it sank the boat!)

As we all passed the time chatting about our problems in the rain, two other boats returned from their Bank Holiday cruises. 50th birthday celebrations were spoiled by a gig that was cancelled and the rain that dampened the cruise home.

Why don't the Government instigate a variable Bank Holiday that moves to a time when the weather is good. Any party that promised that would surely get elected.