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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.

Monday 13 October 2008

On the move again, again

The weather is beautiful today and it was great to be back in the boat and moving. We only went to dump rubbish and get water but to be moving on a still canal on a beautiful day is a pleasure to be thankful for.

There are a lot of boats about. The shared ownership boats are frequent visitors and we have a few boats that appear to be hanging around waiting for the stoppages when they will be 'forced' to stay in town. There are a few hirers making a trip in the good autumn weather. I wonder if there is a way to determine the weather before booking or whether these hirers are just grabbing the deals at the end of a tough season for holidays in the UK.

I spoke to one hirer on a Kate boat. He was not a new hirer and had been this way before on another boat. He was really enjoying the time and loved the boat he was on. "The only thing missing is a stove! We have central heating, though". I must admit that the stove is an essential. to us however, it is also the central heating. In fact it is the only heating! I guess that the risk assessment for a stove on a hire boat would be just too much for the hire companies to contemplate. Diesel central heating is much safer, cleaner and more practical with little children around.

We also saw BW pushing a hopper back to Nell Bridge with their new workboat. It didn't appear to be named. "Little Boy Blue" would be nice or maybe "Blue Notes" or "Blue Peter". It was very smart and blue.

The "water run" took us four hours today because we had to stop for lunch at General Foods on the way.

It was good to be moving again.

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