Vacancy

Very sunny and warm. 4 hours after set-off we have made it through 11 Atherstone locks, knackered and hot. Who said cruising is relaxing?  I had a vacant morning supposedly drug related.(anti fits, not Ecstasy) On a number of locks I almost opened/closed the wrong paddles at the wrong times when I obviously know better. Fortunately other boaters were around to correct me, otherwise half the UK canal system would be empty. We had a long lunch break to review the morning and plan future strategy. We need to record these issues for discussion with my consultant next time we meet. In the meantime we'll need to share steering/lock duties better and see how it goes.  Talking of lacking communication, our Sky man (not David Bowie) went off with a vital cable which connects the magic box to the satellite dish but has promised to reunite us with it sometime on our travels,not easy to arrange it seems. I should point out he has no connection with Sky (nor do we) but is self- employed.

Two guys followed us through the locks, helping-out as necessary. They had an elaborate series of hand signals to communicate if another boat was on it's way down the lock prior to them entering. On one occasion an older boater arrived to help and asked if the hand signal meant leg-by, a cricketing signal used by umpires to scorers. Our friend stated he was a rugby league fan, to which the old man said " I suppose you think cricket is for Nancy boys ?" which kind-of took my breath away. Was it a barbed comment or a genuine mistake? Our friend chose to ignore it and on we went. Back to the subject of boat names, another came to mind from the distant past which I'll relate without comment : Passing Wind.