No Regrets
Well-Known Member
Just a little weekender to take the stepson and his horizontal-jogging partner out for a reasonable jaunt, departed friday night and enjoyed a quiet and uneventful night on the island.
Then had a lovely little trip to Staines, but my normal mooring-before-the-bridge was 'full' due to a poorly moored cruiser, so we popped onto the 'nightclub mooring' outside the slug in the town centre.
Thats where the fun starts
5pm: Large Broom went whooshing by, leaving everything rocking and rolling in it's wake. Called the lock to report 'Brooming marvellous' for speeding and excess wash. There were others, but this was the worst.
1am: Thudding noise from outside woke me up. I popped out on the deck to have a fag, and watched a bunch of lads comforting poor little Percy who had (bouncer version) fallen down the stairs headfirst using his skull as a brake (mates version) been pushed by the bouncer. this all blew over after thirty minutes and so I went back to bed.
2am: Boat rocking, accompanied by shrieks of 'Show us yer fanny Shazza, show us yer fanny' and clomping foot noises, causing me to pop my head of of the roof hatch like a tank commander, and asking in a relatively impolite way what the young 'lady' was up to.
Sadly, she wasn't showing the light under her bushel, but was nearly doing the splits with one leg on board and the other on the concrete. She ran off after calling me a peeping Tom (!?) and eventually I got back to sleep...
Sunday morning:
Passed a big scruffy old live-abord barge just below Bell Weir lock, and took my place right at the front of the lock. The barge stopped just inside the lock, leaving a tiny gap for one of Salters Steam boats to squeeze through (But by golly, she did!!) the chatted with the skipper about why he stopped, and why the lockies didn't ask him to move up, as there was at least fifty feet in front of him!?
The next fun was at Romney, where 'Princess Diana' came right past us as we queued for the lock. He was told fairly swiftly to get to the back, which he sort of managed by pulling in the front layby and letting everyone pass him, then while the three day boats were messing around putting away fishing rods (Yes, really!) and so on, the locky called me in first, and we had the pleasure of watching possibly the most inept bits of lock work since Stevie wonder took Ray Charles on the infamous 'Millennium cruise'
One little day boat just pulled in, turned the engine off and floated...
The second little day boat skipper tried to catch a bollard, while his (rented?) young Nigerian lady sipped Wine, ignoring his plight in a spectacularly arrogant fashion, eventually taking the throttle with pitiful ignorance...
The third 'little piggy' had a family who were taking the ends of the lines, and throwing them upwards like darts trying to do I don't know what, perhaps hoping they would stick into the slime on the lockside, until the locky rescued them.
All of them had a good round or two of 'Lock pinball' beforehand of course....
Next week: BCC club upriver cruise to Abingdon....
Then had a lovely little trip to Staines, but my normal mooring-before-the-bridge was 'full' due to a poorly moored cruiser, so we popped onto the 'nightclub mooring' outside the slug in the town centre.
Thats where the fun starts
5pm: Large Broom went whooshing by, leaving everything rocking and rolling in it's wake. Called the lock to report 'Brooming marvellous' for speeding and excess wash. There were others, but this was the worst.
1am: Thudding noise from outside woke me up. I popped out on the deck to have a fag, and watched a bunch of lads comforting poor little Percy who had (bouncer version) fallen down the stairs headfirst using his skull as a brake (mates version) been pushed by the bouncer. this all blew over after thirty minutes and so I went back to bed.
2am: Boat rocking, accompanied by shrieks of 'Show us yer fanny Shazza, show us yer fanny' and clomping foot noises, causing me to pop my head of of the roof hatch like a tank commander, and asking in a relatively impolite way what the young 'lady' was up to.
Sadly, she wasn't showing the light under her bushel, but was nearly doing the splits with one leg on board and the other on the concrete. She ran off after calling me a peeping Tom (!?) and eventually I got back to sleep...
Sunday morning:
Passed a big scruffy old live-abord barge just below Bell Weir lock, and took my place right at the front of the lock. The barge stopped just inside the lock, leaving a tiny gap for one of Salters Steam boats to squeeze through (But by golly, she did!!) the chatted with the skipper about why he stopped, and why the lockies didn't ask him to move up, as there was at least fifty feet in front of him!?
The next fun was at Romney, where 'Princess Diana' came right past us as we queued for the lock. He was told fairly swiftly to get to the back, which he sort of managed by pulling in the front layby and letting everyone pass him, then while the three day boats were messing around putting away fishing rods (Yes, really!) and so on, the locky called me in first, and we had the pleasure of watching possibly the most inept bits of lock work since Stevie wonder took Ray Charles on the infamous 'Millennium cruise'
One little day boat just pulled in, turned the engine off and floated...
The second little day boat skipper tried to catch a bollard, while his (rented?) young Nigerian lady sipped Wine, ignoring his plight in a spectacularly arrogant fashion, eventually taking the throttle with pitiful ignorance...
The third 'little piggy' had a family who were taking the ends of the lines, and throwing them upwards like darts trying to do I don't know what, perhaps hoping they would stick into the slime on the lockside, until the locky rescued them.
All of them had a good round or two of 'Lock pinball' beforehand of course....
Next week: BCC club upriver cruise to Abingdon....
