enjoy don't rush

 

We started the day being rocked badly by a hire boater speeding past. A mile further on we passed him waiting impatiently while his partner carried two bulging shopping bags. Mr Speedy  soon caught us up and crowded our stern but we had arrived at the Canal and River Trust works with working craft in the canal and had to advance slowly as directed by the signs for the next mile. Paul slowed even more for a manoevering barge and Mr Speedy  shot alongside us straight into the barges path and rammed it. The CART men were amazed at his stupidity but nobody was hurt due to the skill of the CART operatives. Guys like Mr Speedy give hire boaters a bad name but  most hire boaters are careful and sociable, and bad helmsmen are often privateers. Mr Speedy didn’t learn but caught us up as we approached the next lock. A CART boat was emerging so Paul slowed right up, but Mr Speedy drew alongside. Somehow the bulky CART boat was squeezed between us and Mr Speedy's boat sending us onto the shallows. Fortunately we didn’t stick and made it into the lock. Later we met his partner at the locks and he was charming. After we moored up within sight of the next lock we watched some new hire boaters tackle it. It was highly entertaining to see the men huddled round the boat sharing the driving, 1 on throttle and 1 steering and 1 in command, while the 4 ladies did the hard work of locking. It shows that deep inside those men knew the lasses had bigger muscles than them.