Moving Shilling

This is not Sarah blogging. This is not even about Chertsey. This is a pirate broadcast by her son, formerly known as lock boy, from aboard NB Shilling which he's helping move from Stretton Wharf to Tardebigge Wharf.

Today was the day of 'The 21' (Although there's actually been 22 Locks today, starting with Autherley Stop lock) but before we managed to reach even the first lock we had to set about solving the mystery of the unstarting engine (as the tale will henceforth be called) and Jim set about this mystery quickly and discovered that the leads to the battery had shaken themselves loose of the terminals. Armed with his trusty adjustable spanner and a borrowed battery charger he set about righting this problem and soon enough we were on our way.

Having started off early and missed breakfast we settled for an earlyish lunch before hitting the multitude of locks before us. The last time I came boating the weather decided it would rain pretty much whenever I did a lock so it was comforting to discover that nature had not forgotten my face since then and it dutifully began to spit. No dampening of spirits however: I was back by a boat with a windlass in my hand and that made me very happy indeed.

We progressed through the locks quickly (although my running to the next lock did turn into my walking to the next lock which in turn, towards the end, turned into Jim nudging the gates in anticipation until I arrived) but disaster struck at lock twelve...

First there was a little warning bleep and then Jim announced that there was something stuck in the prop. Ok, maybe calling it a disaster is a little strong. Jim set to hacking what appeared to be a nylon tracksuit jacket (which we decided was either discarded by some chav else some other chav had drowned in it and his body been carried away. Because of the hassle we were both rooting for the latter I think...) So it was intermittent bowhauling for a few locks as new bits of debris were caught up and Jim would disappear up to his elbows through the weed hatch to sort it out.

Nevertheless we arrived at Broad Street basin slightly ahead of schedule so, both of us absolutely gagging for a cup of tea, I put the kettle on. Since then Jim's got the fire going and I've had a delightfully hot shower followed by a pint of beer, half a massive pizza,and a nibble of chocolate.

I'd better say goodnight to you now and do some Philosophy work for university. More tomorrow.

Nightnight.

Sx

P.S. I did give this a quick scan for errors but if you find any please forgive me... I've just typed this whole thing out on my kindle.