Milton

They say bad things come in threes... well we both got our share today!

1. It started as Will was getting things ready to cruise. He put Whiskers on his harness and lead so we could keep him around, but something fell off the bench at the stern and made a big bang, spooking Whiskers, who flew off, lead in tow. We used the PitPat to track Whiskers. He hadn't gone far and came trotting out of the peacock paddock when we called, but his harness and lead were nowhere to be seen 😪

2. We'd bargained for four locks, but must have missed some symbols on the map because it turned out to be six locks and two lift bridges.

3. Vicky had a touch of brain fog, making it difficult for her to concentrate. She managed to break the safety string attached to the canoe's towing rope. Will did a temporary fix with the towing rope, planning to rig another length of safety string when we moored.

4. Tiger had a fit while we were approaching a lift bridge. She's not had one while we've been on the move before.

5. We knew there would be a chance of rain but it was rather heavy when it came and the gusts of wind were strong, making maneuvering through narrow bridge holes and into locks pretty tricky.

6. The last was the worst. Coming out of the final lock, a wooden board sticking out of the bank caught the nose of the canoe. There was no safety string to break so it skewed accross the canal and somehow got trapped between the bank and Rainboat. Little Rainboat's nose got squished out of shape, splitting some of the high density polyurethane before she capsized.

We righted her and bailed a lot of water out before reattaching her and carrying on. After a minute, Vicky who was facing backwards, spotted one of the buoyancy blocks floating by itself about 20m behind Rainboat. The canoe was almost completely underwater 😭 Up on the roof it went. We thankfully didn't have too much further to go until the moorings at Milton.

Will cooked up a pizza for tea and we watched a movie to cheer ourselves up. The much needed rain was heavy the following day. Vicky rested while Will made some repairs to Little Rainboat and popped out to the supermarket, the butchers and the bakers, returning with steak and a custard tart for himself and a punnet of strawberries for Vicky 😋 Things may not have gone as planned on our cruise, but there are too many good things in our lives to feel down for long. Czytaj więcej