What a fabulous day I have had.
Today we welcomed three young ladies from the C&RT on to our boat and we took them out as part of the Boating Buddies Scheme.
Jess, Jen and Gina arrived at 10.30am, I made them a cuppa, because they had come all the way from Milton Keynes. After a natter about safety on the boat as they had never been boating before and a chat about the history of the canals and our boat, we set off just after 11am and headed towards Cape Locks. We were following two other boats who had come down Hatton Locks. One of them moored up and the other took on water, so we had the lock to ourselves, with two boats coming up through lock 2. The ladies were keen to have a go at working the locks and soon realised how hard it can be to wind the paddles up and just how heavy the gates can be. They did wonder how we did this all the time, but also realised how fit it kept up and that meant there was no need to go to the gym.
We stopped at the Tesco mooring for a picnic lunch and another cuppa, which of course followed nattering about the trip so far and more about what happens on the canals and towpaths. We discussed moorings, cyclists, restoration, rubbish, maintenance and of course the rebranding of the C&RT. After lunch we carried on up to the Lidl winding hole, winded and made our way back to the Arm, with the ladies taking it in turns to steer the boat, with Keith giving them tuition.
On returning into the Arm, we did not bother winding, we just moored up, because I have paintwork to tackle this coming week, weather permitting. Before the ladies left, I made them another cuppa, whilst we talked about the day and how much on both sides we had really enjoyed ourselves. The boating buddy scheme is wonderful, because it gets the C&RT staff out of their offices and they get to learn about the canals and the things we as boaters go through. This was the second time we have done this and we hope to do it again very soon.
Weather permitting tomorrow will be boating painting day. We have rust spots appearing around the portholes and so I need to get on top of those and other paint jobs.
Pop back soon xx
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