About Me

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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.

Saturday 7 May 2011

Continuous Mooring

The waterways press is still discussing the ways and means of preventing those who oversatay on moorings bringing legitimate 'continuous cruisers' into disrepute. All sorts of charging schemes have been suggested. I feel that those who break their license conditions should be the ones to bear the penalty of their actions, not the rest of us whether holding a home mooring or not.

The subject has been at the front of my mind recently as I wrote a tongue in cheek song to share at the 'boaters entertainment' at IWA Canalway Cavalcade. I wrote "Continuously Cruising" last year and this year I looked for those excuses that turn a continuous cruiser into a continuous moorer.

Here are the lyrics I came up with. Any comment or additional verses considered!

Chorus:
We're one step ahead of the mooring warden
One step ahead of the BW man
One step ahead of the mooring warden
Slowing down as fast as we can



We have reasons aplenty for wanting to stay
Our bird-feeder's here and it's used every day
Feeding finches and sparrows, robin and Jay
We'll fracture the food chain if we go away.

Our cat will get lost if we move on today
We cannot go yet as she's mousing away
In the fields where the farmer is cutting hay
That's our excuse so we've nothing to pay.

CH

Some say we're selfish but how could that be?
We damage no banks and harm nobody
We sit in our boat drinking strong cups of tea
Harmlessly watching our flat-screen tv

Our satellite dish is fixed to a tree
Our coal stock's protected by cctv
Were broken down with no battery
We cannot move! Now don't you see

CH

Making fenders and buttons for people to see
We are waterways traders and I think you'll agree
We've been here so long we've become history
For 200 years our moorings were free.


The hedges and verges here glisten with rain
The daffs that we planted are blooming again
It's nice here and moving is really a pain!
If you see what we mean then join our refrain:

CH

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