Serviced and ready to go.

I moved up the canal yesterday to enable the mechanic to have access to my boat, so I moored between bridge 99 and 98, 98 having road access, I didn’t want to go right into Braunston in case mooring was a problem.

I then got the trusty bike out and nipped into Braunston for a few provisions, the towpath is, what should I say, challenging, for bike riders and it was only with diligent attention and near expert (well sort of) handling that I managed to avoid a swim or being stung by nettles or attacked by brambles, on a positive note though, there has been very few lycra clad riders powering past my mooring.

Today as arranged around 1pm the mechanic duly arrived and after making a few notes and fetching parts needed from the chandlers, serviced the engine, talking me through what he was doing and how, he also renewed the leaking fuel line, I think the cost was worth it for the first time but I am confident I will be doing future servicing myself.

Once he had gone and I had tidied away a few bits and washed up I made myself a cuppa when a boat began passing very close by my side, you get used to boats appearing to be very close, especially if two are passing each other, but this was VERY close just as I stood up to see why he was so close (it’s very wide here) he suddenly put on loads of power and swung away from me causing his stern to crash into my bow with a loud crunch shaking my boat violently, I went on deck to watch him career across the canal and strike the boat ahead and opposite me (the red boat in the second picture) this time his stern bouncing of its stern, he then managed to career back across the canal and just managed to avoid going into the overgrown bank and then back across the other way, he repeated it to prove it wasn't a fluke until slowly getting it back under control, this was all done with lots of power and massively panicky tiller control, there were no boats moving other than him (and ours after he had bashed into them) what caused it I have no idea, he did not look drunk, but he had no reason to be so close to me in the first instance, perhaps he got distracted by something, oh well no real damage, just a bit more paint scraped off, and it gave us all something to talk about for 10 minutes.

These pictures show how much room there is.......behind me where he came from.

and this shows the space between my boat and those opposite, this boat was not the one involved, he is just showing how it should be done, room for three passing boats abreast there! 

You do witness some strange things.

So now dependant on weather tomorrow I am free to continue my travels.