Our Boat Problems Revisit Us

You knew it was going to happen. Bob and I have an exciting (and occasionally expensive) story every time we go out in our own boat. It was inevitable that some of that should rub off on this trip, wasn’t it?

Today started out well enough. We got underway, and then JoDee and I ran from the boat: 30 minutes ahead of the boat, and then we turned back, expecting to meet the boat in another 10 minutes. It worked out almost perfectly that way. What a great way to run—it was scenic and interesting, but mostly, it was FLAT! Afterwards, Paul fixed mackerel and toast for breakfast. We forged ahead, following our map, which is marked with bridges, locks, shops, water stops, fuel stops, turnaround points, and the most important stop of all, pubs. Stopped at a pub after lunch, and walked past an alpaca farm on the way. We needed to find a turnaround spot (not easy when the boat is 70 feet long). When we found one, JoDee and Bob were discussing the 3-point turn that they had been instructed to do during the “training session” (15 minutes, max.). During the turn, the throttle broke, at a very awkward time in the turn. Boats started to stack up behind us as we took up the entire width of the canal struggling with a boat that wouldn’t respond, trying to turn it around. They finally managed to get it working a little, and we limped on a bit while Paul called the boat place and reported the problem. We pulled over and tied up for about a half hour while we waited for the repair guy to come rescue us. Once he showed up, it was about a 10-minute repair job, and we were on our way again.

I did a fair amount of driving today. Only straight stretches and gentle turns for me, though—I didn’t want anything to do with locks and 90-degree (or 360!) turns. The most difficult thing I did was steer the boat through a few very narrow sections of the canal.

We started looking for a pub for dinner around 7pm, but we didn’t find one until about 9pm. It just happens to be the same pub that Bob and I walked to last night, to see how late they served dinner (9:30, so we were in luck). We had to cross over a bridge and then walk through 3 cow pastures in order to get to the pub. Not bad in the daylight, but we came home at 11pm, and had to walk very carefully to miss the cowpies. At the pub, we had a nice dinner and joined in the ‘Quiz Night’, tying for 3rd place, with 39 out of a possible 55 points.