Damsel in distress followed later by an unexpected sit down for me.....

........ All just a part of the life I have subscribed to.

Late Sunday afternoon I was minding my own business as you do and thought I’d check my gas bottle levels, so I’m on the bow deck having a look when the young lady moored ahead of me started to run towards my boat, she explained that she’d only been on the boat for 3 weeks and couldn’t start the engine as her starter battery was flat, could I help, using her jump leads, she had overstayed at this her very first mooring (she had a warning attached to her boat from C&RT )and was going to put the boat in the adjacent Marina to give her a chance to sort herself out, I said I could, so we (her sister had joined her for that day for moral support), pulled her boat back alongside mine, then found her jump leads weren’t long enough and I don’t own any, so I knocked on Ralph’s boat behind me and he obliged with a longer set, and we got her running.

I was both amazed and impressed, a complete novice on her own, who had decided to live aboard on this, a rented boat on an impulse, no idea about how anything worked really, no idea about even the two basic knots you need, and did not even know what the centre rope was, or what it was for, it’s actually the most important rope on the boat for a single hander, anyway I gave her some brief advice but she was in a hurry to get into the Marina before it got dark, hopefully she will get a lot of help and advice whilst there and go on to enjoy her adventure, she was very keen and happy to get moving and wasn’t at all perturbed by her lack of knowledge, I wish her well.

Yesterday I decided I had been at Market Bosworth for long enough so I had a chat with Ralph and said cheerio and set off about 11am, it was a nice bright cruise and as I have some time to kill I didn’t go too far and pulled over to a towpath mooring just before Sutton Cheney Wharf, having tied up checked the stern gland and then the TV signal I looked at my phone, no signal at all, never mind, fired up the laptop, and hardly any Wi-Fi either, should I move or stay? I decided to stay just for the one night.

This morning I moved on again stopping at Sutton Cheney Wharf to do the usual emptying and filling, it wasn’t a very bright day but it was dry, I tried to moor on the towpath just before Stoke Golding but it was too shallow (a common problem on the Ashby canal I’ve noticed) so I moved across to the 48hour moorings on the opposite side, it is a little duck feeding and picnic area so a number of cars in the lay-by and the wind blowing across the open space was pushing my boat back out, I had wrapped the rope around my waist and was laying back into it as I normally do and the boat was coming towards the bank slowly when the wet ground under my boots decided it would have a laugh at my expense and released it’s grip on me, so I was now sitting on the damp grass watched by two amused ladies feeding the ducks and feeling grateful I was sitting in the canal.

It’s not a bad spot, TV signal ok, Wi-Fi ok, phone iffy, I will probably stay the 48hours.