Canalway Cavalcade 6.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny again and for me it was to be the day of the boat handling competition. One of the organisers had already phoned me to check that I was still entering and I was quite impressed by that, although I had no rules or map of the route. I got those immediately before it was my turn in the competition after Kathryn. 

On the way to Warwick Road Bridge.

It involved steering from the Horse bridge to the Warwick Road bridge, then stopping, getting off and shaking hands with the judge, before reversing back past the island and turning round in a clockwise direction for 360 degrees. A buoy represented a man overboard and had to be lifted up with a boat hook by my bow man, David and approved by the judge. The next manoeuvre was to pull in to the island pontoon, stop and shake hands with another judge, before departing down the Paddington Arm. I was very happy with my performance, but not worthy of a prize. 

Reversing back to the island.

360 deg. turn. (all photos by Betty Smith)

Kathryn, however, gained a prize for runner up, whereas last year she was top dog. Not bad for two years running.

Walking back to my boat later that afternoon, I stopped to chat to the crew of nb Take Wine as they were setting up lights for the illuminated boat procession and got involved with helping for a while. The crew later invited me to cruise with them in the procession, which was very welcome. We were hanging about below the Horse Bridge for some time until it was fully dark, then off we went with 21 other boats. I was totally amazed at the number of people assembled on the bridge and around the pool to watch. I had a seat and a glass of wine on the stern, until it became obvious that the foremost temporary mast was not going to clear the Horse Bridge, so I volunteered to go forward and remain on the cabin top during the event to lower the offending mast if necessary. After three glasses of wine, this was probably not a sensible thing to do, but it all worked out well. Rodney and Kathryn accompanied the captain, Victoria on the counter, giving advice where necessary, as steering in the dark without a head light is difficult enough, but with all the illuminations on top, it was doubly so. Back at their mooring, the malt whiskey was passed around to celebrate a very successful event and we talked all things boating until one in the morning. My thanks to the captain, Victoria and her crew of Peter, Tony and Linda and the two K9's for a wonderful evening.

I have to say that trying to place pics on this blogger is a nightmare and has taken so many attempts that I am seriously thinking of abandoning it entirely, but what else is there to take it's place?