The weather – it doesn’t quite dominate our lives but it continues to play a big part – do we go or do we stay or do we wait a little while and see what happens.
Well we weren’t waiting around on Friday morning – the predictions all were for high winds later in the day – perhaps early afternoon.
A short trip to wind and then a pumpout and fill with water – this latter part taking a mere 20 minutes and then we were away from Galgate with Garstang clearly in our sights.
Although there was broken cloud, the sun was bright and warm when it appeared and it was just bliss cruising along – nothing better than that, but the wind was starting to rise and the air was quite chilly at times.
As we approached Garstang, Diane and Banjo went ahead to check out the mooring situation – she was happy when there were so many after the aquaduct – I guess Banjo was happy with it as well – he didn’t complain.
So we moored up and not too long after the wind increased in strength again – we had just been keeping that little bit ahead of the weather.
Our Ribble Estuary crossing partners – Jo and Tim (nb Albion) – were moored up just near us – we had been waiting to see them again as they were after a copy of the instructions for operation of the timer for their Mykuni heater (the same as ours), and we were happy to oblige – trouble was, they weren’t aboard – we suspected that something serious had happened – they had not covered much distance at all.
We did a shop at Booths (really like this market – some think a little more expensive but great variety and we were pleased with it); Diane finally got to cook the roast that had been waiting – it was a while since she had been able to get one.
Saturday morning we wandered around and came back to the boat and very pleased to see that Janet and Howard (nb Compass Rose) had arrived with their friends Betty and Dave (nb Olly Oaks) – so it was time for tea – with Janet doing the honours – as we formulated a plan of leisure.
It was a beautiful day – sun shining – as predicted, so were made sure that we enjoyed it all.
First up an evening out just checking out a few of the many pubs – only Howard and I remained at the end and even then we were only a little bit late – I think we are all getting a bit old.
Sunday was a bus trip to
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| advertising takes over the whole of this tram |
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| Banjo enjoyed the sun and the day out but like us we were all glad to get back to the boat to rest a bit |
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| from left to right - Betty, Dave, Janet, Howard and Diane |
Once back at the boat, I decided that I didn't quite feel up to dinner out - in fact I hadn't felt well for the whole day, but Diane represented Ferndale; a short while after she had gone, there was a tap on the boat and I was very pleased to see Jo and Tim - they thanked us for the instructions for the heater timer - they had not had a pleasant trip - their leisure batteries had failed when they were at Bilsborrow (now replaced) but more than this, Tim's mother had passed away and they had been down at home for about 12 days - if there is a fortunate part to it all it was that they were able to see her before she died - our sympathies to both.
CaRT had been great in being able to reschedule their bookings for both the return trip across the Ribble (now late June) and their journey into Liverpool - again we say to CaRT, well done!
On this morbid of subjects, the man who was residing on a boat near bridge 63 here at Garstang had also passed away - several of the local boaters who knew him had only been saying the previous day that they hadn't seen him for a little while, so on Sunday one of them looked closely through part of the window not closed by the curtains and called in the ambulance and the police - sadly they found his body - although we didn't know him we are all part of the boating community and we say farewell to him.
Garstang have a Children’s Festival day on the Monday of this long weekend every year, with a parade in the morning of young children from nursery age up to mid teenage; a few local marching bands and floats as well – the whole parade took about 45 minutes to pass a given point and it was very well done – congratulations to Garstang; there was a parade later in the day as well as a number of outdoor events – sadly the latter organised activites were severely affected by the rain which remained for the day.
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| The head of the parade - we were well protected with these reps from the forces |
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| trainee Morris dancers - they were pretty good too |
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| just one of the bands |
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| the Daleks invaded as well |
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| a two-person powered Tardis |
So back to the boat and watch the French Open and the end to an overall lovely weekend.
8 miles
Totals: 1722 Miles, 1306 Locks, 56 Tunnels, 28
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