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 21 April 2018

Water!

Today was a lovely day and so I re-connected the water system and we went on our famous water run. We have done it so many times but it is never boring. This was the first time we have done it since I had my second knee replacement. There are a few things that I found different. Firstly, it was a bit more awkward than it used to be to step down into the engine bay to check the oil, water and greaser before we set off. But I managed it.

We met lots of boaters. Some we knew and jested about us actually being on the move! Others we had seen "somewhere before" but of course neither us or they could remember exactly when or where! Some were locals about local business. Even one delivering a spinning wheel to Tooley's boatyard. No idea what for!

There were non boaters too. The two lively boys with her mother beside herself and the lock. As I came into the lock one told me "You're going to disappear".
"What, miss the pier!"
"No DISAPPEAR"
"Piff! paff! pooF! I'm still here!"
As I went down with the boat I told them that it was only 6 feet down so they would still see my head above the parapet. They laughed.  Back at the mooring where we passed a nice few minutes with a father and daughter who had just moved to the area. She was "doing the canal" at school. She watched me as I lengthened a chain to make mooring easier. With two prosthetic knees now I cannot kneel to reach below the pile cap level to thread a rope through the loop on my mooring chain. I have now added another length of chain.

2miles, 2 locks, 2 lift bridges, 2 hours