Boat for sale!

No, don't panic - I haven't gone and done something silly! Some good friends of mine have their boat NB Cygnus up for sale due to the completion of their brand new build. It's a lovely boat with some super extra features and at a very good price through ABNB- worth a look if you're looking for something new.

Today has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime and I have only just sat down at 9.30pm to type this! Another typical manic day at school. During this afternoons sports day my gazebo covering the PA equipment blew across the field much to the hilarity of the children and parents. Unfortunately one of the legs snapped. On the very first day I bought it the zip on the carry bag broke so I thought it was time to exchange it. A quick phone call to Argos confirmed they had one in stock so they reserved it for me to collect after school. Typically that was the one receipt I couldn't find so I spent a frantic half hour trying to find the bank statement with it on and finally made it to the shop with only 15 minutes spare. They couldn't find the reserved item and eventually put it down to human error! I had to upgrade to a different type but did 'fight' the manager for a big discount on it.

This evening I received an SOS from Tony Collins of the Coventry Canal Society to say they are tracking a man down who is currently out cruising in his 33 ft cabin cruiser and needs to contact his family immediately. Apparently he often moors outside the marina and so I walked over to see if he was there - he wasn't, so I drove down to All Oaks Wood to see if he was there - he wasn't, so I drove to Stretton Wharf to see if he was there - he wasn't, so I gave up and drove home! On the way home, I was driving through the woods at 9.30pm and met a lady on a very flighty horse. I stopped for her whilst she struggled to regain control of the horse whilst flapping her hands at me. Eventually she came alongside and I wound down the winder and asked her to explain why she was flapping at me to which she replied in a somewhat grumpy tone, "You have your headlights on and they're startling him!" Am I missing something here or does anyone else think that riding a scatty horse at 9.30 in the evening through dark woodland when it gets scared by car headlights is probably not the most sensible idea since the Sinclair C5!

I notice from WW this month that the 2008 licence fees are expected to rise by 10% plus inflation - the first impact of the DEFRA cuts. I'll drink to the new waterways minister- Jonathon Shaw, (but not whilst cruising of course!)


OK, for one brief moment I thought BW was efficient. Over a month ago I phoned BW to ask if it was possible to get an early licence application pack so that my boat was fully licenced BEFORE I leave to go cruising. "No problem" they said; it will be in the post first thing for you. It duly arrived and I returned it all by immediate return of post. Today I thought I ought to ring and check it as I hadn't received the licence. "Oh yes," they said, "it was posted out to you on Monday this week so you should get it soon." I explained that I was surprised to hear that they hadn't posted it out any earlier as I had especially requested an early renewal. the answer was emphatic, " Whilst it is our policy to send early renewal forms out, we don't process them any earlier as it would be unfair to other boaters to raise some people to the top of the pile" I begun to reason but quickly realised that this telephone assistant was clearly not intelligent enough to work out the idiosyncrasy of this policy - maybe someone from BW could explain??

Meanwhile, I wait and hope that it might arrive tomorrow or Friday; otherwise I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do all the way down and back. I may just display a poster in each window saying 'this boat is fully licenced but I am not displaying the disc due to BW's total incompetence - ask for more details!'