markc
Well-Known Member
I want to relay an incident that happened this weekend - It appears that the disrespect for fellow human beings over recent weeks is not just restricted to the mobs that have been causing havoc up & down the country, it happens at peaceful mooring on the Thames too.
I’m not going to ‘name names’, or even say where this happened, but suffice to say that the whole incident has left me & my wife shocked and I am ashamed that fellow boaters see fit to treat others in this way.
We were with our young son, who is just over a year old and decided to visit a well-known mooring for a peaceful weekend and chose this spot because our son has just learnt to walk, and a big open space is ideal for him to try out his little legs. Once we had moored up, early on Saturday morning, we hopped off the boat to play on the field. There were 3 or 4 largish dogs from the group of boats behind us that were not on a lead that were making it tough for us to feel safe to let Jacob play. Not a problem – it must be great for a dog to run around, especially if cooped up on a boat and there are not that many moorings where dogs can do this, so we were more than happy to stay the boat until our guests arrived, and then we went out for lunch.
After lunch our guests left and another friend joined us for the afternoon and dinner on the boat. The group behind that comprised of maybe 7 boats and 15-16 people had a BBQ on the bankside and the loud music started. I don’t mind if anyone wants to have a party, but common decency suggests that if you are having it 2 boats away from other people who may be wanting a peaceful evening, you send someone along to apologise in advance for the noise and make them feel perfectly happy to request the music to be turned down if things get a bit rowdy later. I would think more so if they had a baby on board.
So, no pre-emptive apology and we spent the evening with our friend with a background of the group singing through the Abba & Tom Jones back catalogue at the top of their voices. All evening, our son was disturbed and we said nothing.
At around 10pm, it was pitch black and now, on top of the singing, the group were all winding their dogs up to howl. As it was dark and they had no lights on, I shone a torch over to them and asked them to keep it down as we had a baby on board. As I did so, one of the group started to come over and I was expecting him to maybe apologise. Instead my wife & I received a barrage of abuse and threats, and this person was extremely intent on getting me off my boat so he could beat the **** out of me, just because I shone a torch at him. My wife was reduced to tears and there was no way on earth I was going ashore on a dark bankside with the threat of drunken violence, especially with such a large group. The only option we had was to retreat below and comfort our son who was now wide awake & crying. The music & singing continued unabated for another 2 hours, whilst still hearing the various ways that I was going to get ‘a smack in the mouth’ and lots of torch shining on our boat – very intimidating, so much so that it’s going to take a lot of persuading to get my wife to spend another night moored bankside.
I grew up on the river and have spent so many years telling anyone who would listen how friendly everyone is and what a wonderful ‘old fashioned’ community it is. Maybe I was wrong, and it makes me very sad.
I’m not going to ‘name names’, or even say where this happened, but suffice to say that the whole incident has left me & my wife shocked and I am ashamed that fellow boaters see fit to treat others in this way.
We were with our young son, who is just over a year old and decided to visit a well-known mooring for a peaceful weekend and chose this spot because our son has just learnt to walk, and a big open space is ideal for him to try out his little legs. Once we had moored up, early on Saturday morning, we hopped off the boat to play on the field. There were 3 or 4 largish dogs from the group of boats behind us that were not on a lead that were making it tough for us to feel safe to let Jacob play. Not a problem – it must be great for a dog to run around, especially if cooped up on a boat and there are not that many moorings where dogs can do this, so we were more than happy to stay the boat until our guests arrived, and then we went out for lunch.
After lunch our guests left and another friend joined us for the afternoon and dinner on the boat. The group behind that comprised of maybe 7 boats and 15-16 people had a BBQ on the bankside and the loud music started. I don’t mind if anyone wants to have a party, but common decency suggests that if you are having it 2 boats away from other people who may be wanting a peaceful evening, you send someone along to apologise in advance for the noise and make them feel perfectly happy to request the music to be turned down if things get a bit rowdy later. I would think more so if they had a baby on board.
So, no pre-emptive apology and we spent the evening with our friend with a background of the group singing through the Abba & Tom Jones back catalogue at the top of their voices. All evening, our son was disturbed and we said nothing.
At around 10pm, it was pitch black and now, on top of the singing, the group were all winding their dogs up to howl. As it was dark and they had no lights on, I shone a torch over to them and asked them to keep it down as we had a baby on board. As I did so, one of the group started to come over and I was expecting him to maybe apologise. Instead my wife & I received a barrage of abuse and threats, and this person was extremely intent on getting me off my boat so he could beat the **** out of me, just because I shone a torch at him. My wife was reduced to tears and there was no way on earth I was going ashore on a dark bankside with the threat of drunken violence, especially with such a large group. The only option we had was to retreat below and comfort our son who was now wide awake & crying. The music & singing continued unabated for another 2 hours, whilst still hearing the various ways that I was going to get ‘a smack in the mouth’ and lots of torch shining on our boat – very intimidating, so much so that it’s going to take a lot of persuading to get my wife to spend another night moored bankside.
I grew up on the river and have spent so many years telling anyone who would listen how friendly everyone is and what a wonderful ‘old fashioned’ community it is. Maybe I was wrong, and it makes me very sad.
