Towpath Tale Part Two.

Hi Folks.

Well this one is really gonna make you scratch your head and wonder.

Over the weekend I got chatting to a friend who lives on a boat and is a continuous cruiser, and she was telling me that she met a woman and her family on a hire boat, which was heading back to base.
She enquired as to whether the lady and her family had enjoyed their holiday and the answer she got was.

"No, this has been the worst holiday I have had".

She said she was sorry to hear this and enquired further as to why she was so unhappy. The lady replied.

"People have been so rude and un-helpful, I feel that we will never take another canal holiday".

On this note, she asked what finally made her come to this decision and was told.

"We arrived at a flight of locks and joined the queue of boats to go up, when a private boat came past us and told us to go to the back of the queue"

My friend screamed "What".

The lady said " We were told that private boats take precedence at locks and all hire boats have to go to the back of the queue"

My friend was extremely annoyed and informed the lady that this was most definitely not the case. It was done on a first come, first served basis. Which she saw really upset the lady.

My friend spoke to this lady for sometime, and tried to smooth over her clear anger, at the way she and her family had been treated, whilst boating.

How dare anyone tell someone they are better than anyone else?
How dare anyone do this to a hirer, who has paid good money to be on a boating holiday?
This lady and her family may never come back to boating because of one stupid person.
If it had been me, I would have taken the boat name and number and reported them to BW, because the waterways does not need this sort of person on it.

I actually am a huge fan of hirers. Because they actually help to keep the waterways open. I have never had a problem with them. They are always ready to learn and listen to any help provided. Of course we have been hit by them on occasions, but it is only because they sometimes get things wrong. And yes I have asked to slow down a little when passing hire boats, which they usually do, because they did not realise they were going to fast.
We all had to learn and we all make mistakes. But to treat a hirer as this private boater did is not acceptable.