Our boat damaged by rock thrown by boys

It's been very windy today, but we didn't have any problems. Not with the weather, anyway. This cormorant looked to be drying off in the breeze.

At Enfield there's a curious scene amidst the historic small arms factory buildings. A narrowboat in a rectangular pond.

The Harold Turpin is floating as evidenced by the wind moving it a little, but it seems to have very little ballast as it is sitting very high on the water. It bears the name of a former designer at the Royal Small Arms Factory - the "T" in Sten, as in the sub-machine gun.

As we approached Dobb's Weir Lock a group of about six boys was walking towards us on the towpath. One of them made a strange gesture with his fist. We called out a friendly "hello" greeting which they ignored. As we continued there was a sudden loud bang from the side of the boat. One of the oiks had thrown a sizeable missile at us. By the time I'd got the camera out they had disappeared. At the lock I examined the damage: three places where the paintwork had been punctured.

I shall have to touch this up straight away; unfortunately I'm still trying to locate the right grey paint, so it will have to be the wrong colour in the meantime.

As far as I can recall, this is the only time our boat has been damaged by vandals. Thinking about it now, if the rock had hit one of us on the head we could have been seriously hurt.

We tied up at the Fish and Eels pub just above the lock and ate there. Hertford tomorrow.

Edited to add: I have reported this incident to Essex Police (the towpath is in Essex; the other side of the river is Hertfordshire).