Saturday 13 June 2015

Ten BCF boats at Cotmanhay on the Erewash; back to school for Jan

We have been busy. That's my excuse for not blogging for the last week and more. We had joined up with several other members of the Boaters' Christian Fellowship for an event based on the Bridge Inn at Cotmanhay on the Erewash Canal.

The idea was to organise a family fun weekend for the local community where there would be opportunities to share a little about our faith. On Thursday morning, 4th June, we had the first of several 0800 briefing meetings.

The boats and personnel there were
  • Dilly-Dally (Alan and Hazel)
  • Essence (Adrian and Chris)
  • Gabriel (James and Hazel)
  • Gospel Belle (Peter and Lin)
  • Jubilee (John and Jan)
  • Mistol (Rob and Trish)
  • Remus (Eric and Sue)
  • Tumzel Cloud (Don and Celia)
  • Trinity (Henry and Lin with grandson Jack)
  • Ultreya (Chris and Di)
One job we volunteered for was to help in a leaflet drop to the nearby housing estate. The weather had certainly heated up by this stage.

Before the weekend schools in the area had been asked if they would like to visit some of the boats; on the Friday Adrian and Chris entertained several groups of schoolchildren on Essence with an interactive presentation on safety on the waterways.

Here's Jan on her way to take a school assembly (she might have thought all that was in the past - not so!) on the parable of the lost sheep.

We were at the Bridge Inn at the invitation of Bob, the landlord. He kindly provided us all with a free barbecue.

Some of our number provided an evening of folk music in the pub. Hazel and James graciously allowed Jan, on violin, and me, on recorder, to join in for the second set. We supplied some harmonies and the occasional twiddly bit.

That takes us up to the end of Friday; on Saturday there were activities for families in the garden. More to come.

2 comments:

Ian and Irene Jameison said...

If you get up to Langley Mill don't forget to get your end of navigation plaque. I think the cost is £5 and Pete at the boatyard usually has them. If you belong to AWCC then moorings are free in the Great Northern basin (very secure to leave the boat) for a week. Norman Cornwall is the mooring officer and his number is on a board by the facilities There are also moorings by the winding hole near the dock. Lidl and Asda is within walking distance as well as McDonald's and KFC. Glad you are enjoying this canal as it's had some bad press in the past which I think is totally undeserved. Xxx

Halfie said...

Ian/Irene, we did indeed go to Langley Mill. I'll blog about it soon.