Hi Folks, We had a good time at the festival. The illuminated boats were a little dissapointing, one of the best boats didn't have any lights on at all - the Stour as she was leaving during the parade, and her bolinder sounded great! Who won BTW? The most fun we had during the parade was when both gates were opened on the stop lock and boats had to power through. Kew was making smoke as she passed, all good fun! :-)
I wanted to get up the Wolverhampton 21 late in the evening as I knew no-one else would be daft enough to try this. Mum was visiting in her car, but wanted to stay Monday night. Orignally we were going to try and park the car at the top of the locks, and then it would be ready for her in the morning, but we couldn't find anywhere safe to leave it. Then we had a big idea, leave the car near our mooring, and then Mum could get the bus down there on Tuesday morning. It was getting late when we left, after returning the gangplank we borrowed, we reversed back to the junction at 18:45, and managed 3.5 mph at times backwards! I spun the boat in front of Nuneaton and Brighton who were just working through the stop lock. They followed us, but I don't know which direction they went at Aldersley Junction. A boat was just coming out of the bottom of the flight when we arrived, and so we went straight into the empty lock (after opening the gates again). We entered at 19:10, and were moored at the top of the locks at 21:07 - though we did the last 7-8 locks in the dark. Cheers, Mike -- Michael Askin http://shoestring_DOT_zapto_DOT_org/
