Shocked at Tragic News

Just before we left Peterborough this morning we heard of the tragic accident that resulted in the death of a mother on a hire boat holiday. We pray for them and offer our sincere condolences. It happened just four miles from our home mooring.

What also shocked us was that the boat concerned was "Harry". We hired her for three wonderful holidays in 2000, 2001 and 2003 and were on her when we heard about the boat we now own. In fact, we enquired whether Kate Boats were open to offers for her WE LIKED HER SO MUCH!

There will no doubt be calls and recriniminations about the training given to hirers. Our experience is that Kate Boats were meticulous in their on board breifing at handover and ensured that we were able to handle the boat safely and with regard to others. In the end, it has to be understood that accidents can happen very quickly and can result in tragedy as in this case.

This accident is so close to home in many many ways and must remind us all of the necessity to be even more careful than we are.

Today we entered the Middle Level Navigation and are moored at March under the chimes of a loud clock. It reminds us of Cropredy where the church bell tolls out the hours and the curfew bell is rung on Thursdays. Time waits for no man.

16 miles and 2 locks today.

In the beginning

Yes, as was commented on a post I made a few weeks ago, we all have to start somewhere.

Yesterday, I took my nephew and his fiancee for a boat handling course. They wanted to borrow Sonflower for a couple of days as they had some holiday left and had never handled any craft before.

I took a tried and trusted route. The best way to learn is to do it. Tooley's Boatyard run boat handling courses and take their pupils on a circular tour. The same circular tour that we would undertake to get water. So I did the same with my tutees. We went through the boat with the essentials of the layout and equipment, to fit the tiller, greasing the stern tube and then starting the engine and untying the mooring lines we were away. One of them steered out of Banbury to the Grimsbury Wharf turning point and back to the centre, through the lift bridge and lock then we changed helmsmen for the cruise to the Bankside turning point and back through the lock and lift bridge stopping at the water point to demonstrate this too. And back to Castle Quay. A concise tour of the essentials of narrowboating completed in three hours.

I was then happy to leave them with the keys and our precious boat for a couple of days, knowing that they had navigated between moored boats, through bridge narrows, a lock, a lift bridge, stopped to set down and pick up crew, turned and moored the boat. I was confident that they would survive.

I walked away thinking that it was a far cry from the 'familiarisation' I received from the company I first hired from. Someone came with me to show me how to steer and operate the throttle and stepped off the boat at the first bridge hole, leaving me to navigate two tunnels, eight miles of canal, a busy canal junction that evening with a cheery "don't stop between the tunnels" and the prospect of descending 22 locks the next morning without ever even seeing a hand operated narrow lock before. My only experience had been watching the lock keeper at Penton Hook on the Thames operate his hydraulically operated gates and paddles when I was a boy.

But then the best way to learn is by doing. We all make mistakes. The thing is to try not to make the same mistake too often.

Oh, I forgot to tell them where to plug in their mobile phone charger. I hope they will cope.