An action-packed last day of the festival

The weather forecast for today was dry - and dry it was. There was even some sunshine, and the crowds came back. I was busy all day, first setting up the rope throwing area, then a stint behind the bar from 1040 - 1300, finishing off with manning the rope throwing from 1430 - 1700. At lunchtime Paul Balmer came on board to provide the latest version of his Waterway Routes maps and to give me a mini-tutorial in more advanced use of the Memory-Map system. Tomorrow we shall be on the move once more, after more than a week at St Neots.

As is usual at festivals many boats had been decorated with lights and bunting. This was our view looking back …

… and this the view forward.

This year I seemed to spend little time at the Boaters' Christian Fellowship stand as I was doing so many other things on site. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing as there were enough other BCF members there, and I was wearing the BCF logo while doing all those other things. One task I didn't get involve in was bin emptying.

After tea, we went to the entertainments marquee where we took part in a home-spun musical evening, with the bar handily next door.

Jan played along on violin while I tootled on the recorder. Jan persuaded me to perform my party piece: simultaneous whistling and humming in harmony. I don't know what the audience thought; perhaps they couldn't hear me. They were polite enough to applaud when I'd finished, anyway.

Tomorrow, as I said, we will be leaving St Neots to go to St Ives as we start our "rush" to get off the Environment Agency waters before our visitor licence expires. Better get some sleep.

Wet day at St Neots IWA Festival ends with a bang

No post yesterday for technical reasons, sorry. What did happen yesterday? Ah yes. There were several unexpected heavy showers of rain and one of hail. Still, there seemed to be good numbers of people around for the first day of the IWA Festival of Water at St Neots, Cambridgeshire, on the River Great Ouse. I helped out on the rope throwing activity as I did last year at Ilkeston. I also did a couple of stints serving behind the bar.

Today rain was forecast and it certainly came - on a strongish breeze. This drove the crowds away, together with most of the stall holders. I watched the F1 Grand Prix on board, returning to the festival site at 1600 to find it almost deserted save for the entertainments marquee.

This evening we went for a curry with David and Mary at the Nawab Lounge, enjoying their superb value "banquet night" meal for £12.95 each. (Starter, main, side and rice/naan.) The food was very good but the service was a bit slow. We were wanting to see the illuminated boat procession and time was running short. Fortunately we finished just in time to see the boats, some of which had been festooned with hundreds of lights.

This was one of the best.

Crowds of people looked on from the bridge as the boats winded just below it. Other boats sounded their horns and klaxons.

With precision timing, as soon as the procession was over the firework show began.

The blustery weather had been easing off during the evening; by the time of the procession the rain had stopped and the wind had died down, leading to perfect viewing conditions. The forecast tomorrow is dry, so perhaps the crowds will return.

Volunteering at St Neots

I spent much of today helping set up the IWA festival site at St Neots: shifting Heras-type fence panels and blocks, unloading a van, moving tables and chairs etc. Yesterday I helped with marking out pitches. No photos, sorry. I'll try to take one or two tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I was rather taken by the decorated pigeon box ...

… on a boat by Barford Bridge.

What CRT does with a settee in a lock

After visiting the large new Lidl very near where we were moored at Sandiacre we carried on up the Erewash to the IWA festival site in Ilkeston. We stopped at what I thought would be the beginning of the moorings and cycled up to look for a harbourmaster so I could find out where we were meant to be. I soon came across some blueshirts marking up the moorings, and discovered that our spot was 47B, even further back from where we had stopped. They were able to tell us that the boat on our inside had gone up to wind, so we decided to do the same. That way we would be bow-to-bow and stern-to-stern, which would probably make it easier to get on and off.

At one of the locks we went through was a CRT drop-side truck with a settee which they had removed from Stenson's Lock, a little further than we were going.

Some people appear to have no brain.

Me. I should have walked round to the other side of the truck to take the photo. Well done CRT for hoiking it out.

We winded immediately above Green's Lock in an unofficial winding hole (not marked on Nicholson's) at the entrance to the bywash. There was a fair amount of boat juggling, with two boats waiting to go down the lock and us and another boat wanting to wind. It all worked out in the end, and we returned to the festival moorings. The single boat ahead in the photo is Alice, against which we moored.

The canal was covered in a white powder which someone said was ash.

It's been humid and warm today, but with no rain. Until now. It has just started.

This afternoon I helped with marking out the site for the locations of the marquees and catering stalls. We were quite surprised when we got here today to see the field completely empty of anything. The marquees etc. arrive tomorrow - no doubt I shall help with putting everything up.

Plaques were bigger in the old days

In Diglis basin, Worcester, David got talking to the owner of another old boat, apparently called Nuts in May.

This boat had been to the IWA rally in Stratford in 1964 to mark the Stratford Canal's reopening that year. (David didn't attend with Kew as he'd only just bought it and was in the process of converting it for living on.)

Note how large the original plaque is (by the owner's left hand) compared to today's versions.

The plaque reads: This boat attended the IWA Festival of Boats and Arts 1964. If there's an inscription round the outside I can't read it. I think it might be decorative tooling.

I looked up Nuts in May on Jim Shead's boat listing, only to discover that CanalPlanAC now hosts the boat listing. There was a Nuts in May listed: 40', built by Cunis, so I guess this is it.

The boat had an unusual licence plate: B3210, but CanalPlanAC had the registration as a different number.

Is "B3210" a relic of a former numbering system?

"Waterways Pageant" replaces National Festival

The IWA has announced that this year it will hold a Waterways Pageant at Saul Junction. This promises to have a very different feel from the National Festivals of the past. For a start, this will be free for everyone to attend. Scenes like the one below, from last year's Festival at Cassiobury Park, should, thankfully, be put behind us.

Despite the sunshine there were not enough people there to make it viable. So free entry should create a much better atmosphere, especially as the focus promises to be on boating rather than the commercial aspect.

We intend to go.

Sheridan the Robotic Sheepdog at the IWA National Festival 2013

One of the promised "attractions" at this year's IWA festival was Sheridan the Robotic Sheepdog. Sure enough, there he was, pedalling his little tricycle and stopping to talk to bemused festival goers.

The quickest of internet searches reveals that, for a minimum fee of £375 per day, Sheridan is bookable through Peter Johnson Entertainments for bringing "smiles, laughter and amazement to children and adults alike" to your festival or shopping centre.

Sunday services at the IWA National Festival

Usually at the IWA festivals the Boaters' Christian Fellowship organises two services on the Sunday. One, at 0800, is a short communion service intended for boaters, campers and site staff; the other, often at 1030, is for members of the public too.

This year the BCF was sidelined, to an extent, by the churches in Watford. They had arranged for their annual open-air combined service to coincide with the festival. Fencing was moved so as to make the trailer stage temporarily part of the "outside" space, meaning that the public didn't have to pay to go to church (though they were encouraged to buy tickets for the festival afterwards).


I estimated that 500 people attended the open-air service, most of whom, presumably, were from the Watford churches.


Before that, though, and a much quieter affair, was the communion service in the Food Court. Even this seemed to have little BCF involvement as it was led by two Waterways Chaplains.


Perhaps things will be back to "normal" next year.

Regarding the festival itself, though, I hope the IWA will do some serious thinking about what went wrong this year. Numbers were down, exhibitors must have been disappointed, and many boaters have been expressing their feelings in the blogosphere. Despite the gorgeous weather there just wasn't the buzz of past Nationals. As others have said, nice though Cassiobury Park was, the festival site was too far detached from its raison d'être - the waterway and boats. The Crick boat show seems to have supplanted the IWA National Festival as the main large-scale event of the year. All it needs is some obscure competitions with no advance publicity, such as "best child's drawing of a boat", and the takeover will be complete.

Spitfire flypast at the IWA Festival in Cassiobury Park

One of the promised attractions, weather permitting, at the IWA National Festival this year was a flypast by a WWII Spitfire. Well, the weather could not have been better - unlike my camera!

When the time came everyone stopped what they were doing and stared into the sky. Over the PA came, slightly incongruously, the Dambusters March and some helpful commentary. Thankfully the fairground music stopped ... and then the lone fighter flew right overhead.

We were told it was a Spitfire, but aren't a Spitfire's wing tips more rounded?

This is the best photo I got, cropped from a shot mostly of the sky. Still, not too bad. The plane turned and flew over us a couple more times before flying off again. The sound was tremendous. Not loud, but briefly evocative of that other world of black and white bravery and sacrifice, loss and heroism.

There it is, heading off to its next engagement. It's that tiny speck just below the dark cloud in the centre of the frame.

Don't bother to click on the photo, here it is magnified for you.

No more than half a dozen people joined me in applauding. The fairground music started up. Everyone went back to what they'd been doing a minute before.

What I did when volunteering at the IWA National Festival

This year, when booking for the IWA National Festival at Cassiobury Park, I ticked the tiny box which indicated I'd like to volunteer to help. I had no idea what I might be letting myself in for, so, if you are thinking of volunteering in the future, I hope this post might give you some idea of what to expect.

First, it seemed to take a long time to get any information about what I was going to do. I found an e-mail address for the person who knew about volunteering and discovered that I was to be on Gates T/H, and was told my hours (two on the Friday and two on the Saturday). I e-mailed back to ask what Gates T/H meant, but didn't get the answer. I wondered when I might expect any joining instructions for the festival. I had been told our mooring location but had had nothing by post. A few days before going to the boat to start our cruise down the GU to Watford I phoned the festival office. Following the options I found myself put through to the mobile phone of an organiser who was actually boating at the time. Somehow she had thought I was going to be arriving at the site a couple of weeks early - well, no, I hadn't been asked to - and said she would post the boaters' preliminary information to me.

The impression I got was that I should already have known how things worked and what was going to happen. This was not the case. The envelope arrived on the morning we drove to Milton Keynes to join Jubilee. Phew!

So what did Gates T/H mean? I still didn't know. Perhaps I would find out when I signed in as instructed at 1000 on the first day (the Friday).


At last! Not Gate T or Gate H, but Tickets/Hand stamping! In other words, I was to be a ticket checker/collector and/or hand stamper for those requiring exit passes. I was issued a blue volunteer's T-shirt and asked to be at the gate at 1400. I had to sign a health and safety form, one of the ludicrous parts of which was that I had to "stop work if approached by a member of the public". On gate duty? Checking the public's tickets? I don't think so!

In the blazing sun, therefore, I turned up a few minutes early so I could see what to do, and then I did it. There was no training and almost no instruction. I wasn't shown how to distinguish a genuine ticket from a fake. Most arrivals had just bought their tickets from the box office, though, so most of the time it was simply a case of taking the tickets and allowing the people to retain their receipt, then directing them through the turnstiles. Boaters, campers and exhibitors had wristbands. These were waved straight through the turnstiles.

The turnstiles were there to keep a tally on how many were in the site at any time in order to satisfy the council's strict numbers limit (not that this would have been a problem this year). People leaving had to exit via the turnstiles which would register an exit count. People with buggies, bicycles or wheelchairs were let through a gate bypassing the turnstiles. In order to keep the tally correct one of the volunteers had to manually push the turnstile the requisite number of clicks. Annoyingly, some blueshirts, presumably higher up the feeding chain, took it as their right to come and go via the bypass gate rather than use the turnstiles. The other, more experienced gate volunteers simply shrugged and let them get on with it without counting them out or in.

There were four of us blue-shirted volunteers on this duty at any time. On my first shift it wasn't very busy, but the second shift was 1200 to 1400 on the Saturday, which saw many more people come through. The four of us divided up our tasks: one on bypass gate duty, one taking tickets, one checking wristbands and returning hand-stamped people. I looked after the ink pad and stamp, branding those who wanted it.

Despite the apparent laxity I enjoyed being part of the operation, but felt I was missing out by not having helped with the initial setting up of the site. Had I been there to help earlier I might have known that there was water available - even tea - while on gate duty. At the end of my shift I merely walked back into the site again. It was good to help, as I say, but the end felt a bit damp-squibbish.

I hope I haven't given you the impression that I didn't enjoy it or think it was worth it. I was glad to be able to help in what was though, I think, a very small way.

Bloggers met - the photos

It's difficult to go anywhere on the waterways now without bumping into a fellow blogger or two. On our recent trip to Watford for the IWA National Festival we met for the first time Doug and James of nb Chance.

We have now tried - and enjoyed - the Lady Grey. Thanks guys.

At the festival itself, while we were manning the Boaters Christian Fellowship stand, Martin and Margaret of nb Erin-Mae introduced themselves to us. No photo, unfortunately.

Later I saw Sue and Richard, with obligatory greyhounds (sorry - I didn't record their names), of nb Indigo Dream.

On the Sunday, I think it was, I met James and Amy of mb Willow as they were walking to the site entrance. In the afternoon we joined this merry throng for a while (before I disappeared to buy my solar kit) - from left: Kath and Neil of nb Herbie; Carrie (hidden!) of nb Blackbird; Simon of nb Tortoise; Sarah and Jim of nb Chertsey (Bakewell was not in attendance). James and Amy joined after I took the photo.

I think that was it for the festival, but on the way back to Milton Keynes we stopped to say hello to Jill and Graham of nb Matilda Rose, another first time meeting. I can't think why MR is not on my blogroll - I'll have to rectify the situation.

We also met up with Del and Al of nb Derwent6 but, somehow, I omitted to photograph the occasion.

Halfie features in Towpath Talk

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail out of the blue from a writer for Towpath Talk, the free monthly canal newspaper. The journalist, Helen Gazeley, had spotted some interesting things on my blog. She asked me if I'd be happy for her to mention the blog in her column, The Wet Web, and asked me to send her a few photos.

Well, of course I was happy! Especially as Helen said that she might be able to mention that I had a share for sale in Shadow.

The August number came out during the IWA Festival, so I grabbed a copy and found this near the back:

Not only was the share-for-sale mentioned, it was accompanied by a large photo of Shadow!

The other things featured were my time-lapse videos and a post I did a while ago about a combined long- and short-throw windlass.

Here is the text of the relevant section (the article is here):

**********************

John Halford is a narrowboater who likes gadgets, is a good customer of Maplins for electronic components, and has some useful ideas on his blog http://jhalfie.blogspot.co.uk including how to make a combined long and short-throw windlass. With one gadget, his time-lapse camera, he’s produced around 50 videos, taking you in minutes along stretches such as Kingston-upon-Thames to Bull’s Bridge, and Queen’s Head to Bettisfield on the Montgomery and Llangollen canals.

Incidentally, John is currently selling a 20th share in narrowboat Shadow, an unusually small share that means, as he points out, unusually small bills.

*********************

The 1/20 share is still for sale, despite the massive publicity, so, if you're interested, leave a comment below. In the extract above I have just noticed that the URL was incorrect (I have now corrected it) - so that may be a reason why no-one has contacted me about the share!

IWA Festival day three: bloggers meet, and I spend lots of money

It's all over - for us, anyway. The IWA Natioal Festival, that is. There'll be lots of packing/clearing up to do, but we have to return Ally and Ben's home to them.

Today started early, with a short communion service at 0800 next to the beer tent. Then there was time to go back to the boat before the main service at 1030. By the moving of a line of fences the Spotlight Stage was made to be outside the festival site, so that members of the public could attend. I estimated there were about 500 people there, mostly from churches in Watford which get together every summer for an open air service.

Then I bought the remaining LED bulbs for the boat and fitted them. I had to make another trip to the stand where I bought them in order to change a couple for more powerful ones, but the job is now done. The only non-LED bulbs on the boat I can think of now are those in the (240V) fridge and microwave oven. (And some engine warning bulbs, I suppose, but I'm not counting them. Oh, and the tunnel light.)

On my wanderings around the site I came across the Fertan stand. Now I'd heard of Fertan. It's a rust treatment. And Jubilee has a lot of rust in the under-the-well deck area. This is the storage area under the well deck and accessible from inside the boat, and in cooler times gets quite a lot of condensation. I let the Fertan people sell me a litre of their product, enough to treat 144 square feet, for £20. That's another job to do, then. Yes, I know I've got far too much, but I was convinced by the sales pitch that it has unlimited shelf life, and, anyway, the 500ml bottle was only £5 cheaper.

By far the largest spend was a result of visiting a solar panel stand. I came away with 200 watts-worth of solar panels, plus most of the gubbins (some is to follow later) and with a wallet now £500 lighter. That's an even bigger job to come!

One most enjoyable part of the day came towards the end, when, suddenly, there was a table full of canal bloggers. Two tables, actually. Present were Kath and Neil of Herbie; Carrie of Blackbird; Simon of Tortoise; James and Amy of Willow; Sarah and Jim of Chertsey; and me. Unfortunately I had to leave after the briefest of chats - Kath and Carrie, I'm sorry I didn't really talk to you - as we were booked up Iron Bridge Lock 77 at 1720. In the end we were a bit late as I was still in the process of buing the solar panels while the festival was closing at 1700. It was great to see you all.

Now we are moored at Kings Langley, having cruised until 2045 to make best use of the slightly cooler evening.

I'm expecting to get a bit more time for blogging tomorrow. You never know, I might even post some photos!

IWA Festival day two, with a Spitfire flypast

I've done it again. I've left myself with no time to write a considered blog post with photos. So here's a brief update on day two of the IWA National Festival at Cassiobury Park, Watford.

After I helped set up the BCF stand I cycled in to Watford town centre (the wrong, long way) and found Sainsbury's. After a quick food shop I cycled back a better way through the park and back to the boat for a coffee. Then it was off to the festival site for a two hour stint on the gate. It was much busier today, and not so hot. When my shift finished I was back on the BCF stand for another two hours, during which the festival stopped and everyone looked up to the sky to watch a flypast by a Spitfire. The plane put on a great display for us, turning and flying over two or three times and waggling its wings. The crowd seemed to enjoy it but, when the pa announcer invited a show of appreciation, there was hardly any applause. Most people had gone back to what they were doing moments before.

It was around this time that I met Sue and Richard of Indigo Dream plus two hounds (I'd already seen them on my gate duty) and we had a chat. Sadly they couldn't promise to visit us on Jubilee later as they had to get back home. But I was pleased to find Sarah and Jim of Chertsey on board when I returned. Jan had got back before me and invited them in for a tour. It was good to see all of you. I wonder whom I'll meet tomorrow.

And with that, and with the sound of the Metropolitan Line train rattling over the bridge behind us, I'll sign off for now.

First bit of volunteering done at the IWA National Festival

I was up "early" again this morning to help set up the Boaters' Christian Festival stand at 0830. This took until 1000, when, as instructed, I found the IWA Information and Personnel tent to sign in as a volunteer. I had to read a list of bizarre safety instructions - the must ludicrous of which was to agree to stop work if a member of the public approached (I was going to be on gate duty) - and receive a blue T-shirt.

I had to return to the boat for a much-needed drink of water and a cup of tea before going back to the festival site. I was, somehow, drawn to the boat jumble stall where I bought a hand drill and a pack of M6 nuts and bolts (the latter for repairing some ancient garden furniture at home). Then I was on BCF stand duty until 1400, when it was my turn to man the entrance/exit gate to check tickets, direct people to the turnstiles (yes, turnstiles - the local council are being stringent on numbers, not that there was the remotest chance of overcrowding today with volunteers seeming almost to outnumber the public) and stamp people's hands with a barely legible red ink.

I did two hours in the hot sun from 1400 to 1600 with three other blue-shirted volunteers, gradually learning some of the things the IWA didn't tell me, such as there were bottles of water available; also there were tea/coffee making facilities in the personnel tent. I wonder what else they haven't told me. Gradually the shade from a tree crept closer and made things more comfortable (not that I'm complaining about the weather - I'm loving it!) And, suddenly, it was 4 o'clock and my duty was over - until tomorrow, when I have another two-hour stint.

Then I had what seemed like my first chunk of time to have a proper look round the stands. I returned to the boat jumble - in aid of a local IWA branch - to see what other bargains I might have missed. Straight away I found an adult size life jacket, old-type but better than nothing, and a chimney in much better condition than the one on the boat. I whizzed back on the bike (such a useful thing here, given that the festival site is several hundred yards from the canal, and that we're moored another few hundred yards from the bridge) and measured the flue collar to make sure it would fit. It all looked fine, so I returned to the stand and bought the "new" chimney. Having done all this there was no more time to look at anything else, so it was back to the boat again to fit the chimney. Perfect!

On my various trips back and forth along the towpath I chatted briefly to Sarah and Jim on Chertsey - it was good to see you. At the BCF stand we met another blogger: Martin and Margaret of Erin Mae. It was good to meet you for the first time, and I shall have to add you to my blog roll. I've just read your interesting post about noises - I look forward to more!

I forgot to take my camera with me today, so that's my excuse this time. As the owls start up their nightly calling, it's time for me to go to bed. More fun tomorrow - and I must remember to buy some more LED bulbs ...

Arrival at Cassiobury Park for the National Festival

We've made it. We got here at about 5.30pm after boating continuously since 6.30am. A long day. I'm sure it should have taken only about seven hours. Most of the delays were at the locks - and there were lots of locks. At about the second lock of the day I saw someone I recognised - Sarah E - who was lock wheeling for loaded pair Clover and Fazeley. We let them through (of course) and witnessed thumblining in operation. This is a technique using a thin rope attached to the handrails of the balance beams which prevents the motor or the butty from drifting too far back as the lock empties. This would damage the ellum (rudder). The biggest pull towards the cill the butty experiences appears to be when the motor powers out of the lock: the line holds the butty in position, but when the butty starts to move forward under tow from the motor the line magically releases itself and falls back onto the boat. Or something like that. The crew were super-efficient: everything worked quickly and smoothly. We caught up with them at locks lower down, though, as the number of boats heading south built up.

Towards the middle of the afternoon, though, the other boats all disappeared, leaving us once more to work locks on our own. We'd had good locking partners, notably in Alder.

When we got near our destination of Lock 77 we came across the start of the festival moorings. We cruised slowly past, and found our spot almost at the far end. We actually went down the next lock so we could wind in order to be facing the right way for our return journey after the weekend.

Well, that's enough for now, and I must apologise once more for the lack of photos. Tomorrow should be a day with a bit more spare time: perhaps I can put some on then!

Rescuer is rescued, and Halfie falls in again

Tuesday 31st August 2010

The IWA Festival is over, but there's still a festival spirit on the morning after. A misty start gave the opportunity for some foggy photos. Here are fuel boats Archimedes and Ara ministering to the needs of boaters, delivering diesel and coal.


And then I spotted something which was rather familiar from our experiences of the previous week. Just discernible on the far side of the river were two boats, one almost in the trees, and one coming alongside.


It soon became clear that the first boat was in difficulties, and was being breasted up to another to pull it out of trouble.


And then I saw that the stricken boat was Ein Cariad, the very boat which had rescued us at Bablock Hythe when our first propeller fell off. I was there to take a rope as the boats came alongside Chris Colborne's (?) boat, assisting in the rescue of our rescuer. I know boaters help each other, but I wasn't expecting to be able to repay (in a very small way) the kindness shown to us so directly and so soon!


Like what happened to us, Ein Cariad had no drive, but it wasn't through losing its prop. A lot of smoke was reported to be coming from the gearbox. A check revealed that there was hardly any oil in it, but there was no evident reason for its loss. The boat was under way again later after a topup.

We had a booked slot at the next lock downstream, Whitchurch Lock, at 1420, so we left our mooring at 1350 so as to be in good time. The sun had burned off the fog quickly, and it was a lovely warm day. Above Sonning Lock we saw somewhere to tie up for the night where there was still some sunshine. Good, we'll have a barbecue, I thought, and turned Willow to face upstream and brought it in to the bank. Slight problem: awkwardly positioned trees and brambles, and, worse, some submerged branches preventing the bow getting where I wanted it.

With someone from Dizzy Duck holding a rope I stepped into the bow with the long boat hook and started fending off from the trees. To give myself space, and something to push against, I must have stood on the gunwale furthest from the bank. And pushed. Too hard. I started losing my balance. Uh oh ... I'm going in ... and SPLOSH! Still holding the boat hook I was in the Thames for the third time in a week. Oh well, now that I was in, I might as well clear the underwater obstruction, so I pulled the submerged branches out of the way.


It was easy to stand up and put the boat hook on board, but not so simple to get out myself. I had a go at getting onto the bow, but the overhang and lack of footholds made that impossible. The bank was steep and covered in brambles, so that was going to be pretty difficult too. Then our Dizzy Duck helper said she had a ladder, and went to get a short aluminium ladder. This was the perfect thing. With the ladder against the brambles, and its feet on the river bed it was just long enough for me to be able to climb out. Had the ladder not been available I suppose I would have had to wade along to an easier bit of bank, or go to the back of the boat and climb onto the counter.

On this particular underwater excursion (my hat got wet) I had the usual complement of things in my pockets, including two mobile phones and my wallet. Oops! I opened up the phones and shook the water out. My "work" phone had water between the screen and the LCD display, but this dried out successfully and still works. My "personal" phone, on the other hand (in the other pocket) hasn't fared so well. Most of the time it thinks there's no signal, and therefore won't connect. I was worried that all the postage stamps in my wallet might have stuck together, but they peeled apart and seem to be all right after drying out. I filled a large part of the floor with drying receipts, cards, stamps, twenty pound notes, BW cycling permit ... I hadn't realised my wallet contained so much stuff!

In the next post: Boat capsizes!

Our rescuers get an award

Monday 30th August 2010


In the IWA members' enclosure (or whatever they call it) we had a cup of tea with Bernard and Ann Hughes of Ein Cariad. They are the kind people who interrupted their downstream passage to take Willow upstream to a mooring at Bablock Hythe after our first propeller fell off. Bernard and Ann were proudly clutching their certificate and trophy awarded for the "longest direct cruise on inland waterways" to the festival. Actually, I think points were given for enterprise too: reaching parts of the system which other boaters don't, and so on.


It's a decent size trophy. There must have been a lot of money about in 1950 when it appears to have first been awarded, at the first IWA Festival in Market Harborough.

I'll return to Bernard in tomorrow's post, when I'll reveal how, astonishingly, I was able to render assistance when Ein Cariad broke down!


I took very few photographs at the festival itself. Here's one of the Wilderness boats displaying on the lake. The next day one of these was coming towards us at 30 mph. At the time we were walking back from Pangbourne to the boat. Wilderness boats are trailable, and this one was going home. Or to another waterway. By the time I'd thought about taking a pic, it had gone. It's not like that on water! I waved, though, and both driver and passenger gave a boater's wave back from their car.


For the record, here's Willow on its mooring, with Kew, conveniently, right behind.

In the next post ... rescuing our rescuers, and entering the Thames for the third - and most spectacular - time.

Supermen at the IWA Festival

Looking back at my photos of this year's IWA National Festival I realised that I hadn't published my Superman shots. So here they are.




They are, of course, members of the Kangaroos Gymnastics Display Team.

Ferry across the Soar

Well, across the lock cut anyway. The WRG (or should that be wrg?) operated a chain ferry to help people get between their moorings and the festival site.


I didn't take a trip myself as I didn't know when I'd have been able to get back.