A few weeks on and time for another trip (planned by Han and Jamie... again). This time a crew of 8 of us took to England's historic canals for a weekend of boating. After catching a train to Rugby (the birthplace of the sport) we met the rest of the crew at a pub. Parked out the back was our boat 'The Sundance'.About the Sundance: She was a beauty. 70ft, 15 tonne and controlled by a keel and throttle at her stern. Put simply - she was a long, narrow, heavy - but a smooth boating machine. With us in control (80% of the time) she ruled the canals. Over the course of the weekend we all took turns at mastering (or attempting to master) the art of guiding her down the narrow canals. Having driven a few boats in my time - I think I can safely say that this was the least responsive craft I have ever seen - you would turn the keel.... and a minute or so later the bow would turn.... and before you knew it you had steered past your intended bearing and were headed for an obsatcle in the opposite direction.......... which brings me to the next topic of interest.....
About our crashes: Not all of us mastered the art and we had a number of crashes and near misses. Our biggest hit was a head-on collision with a brick bridge. We hit hard - and it was a bit scary for those of us sitting on the front deck at the time - but all parties - captain(ess), bridge, boat and passengers all survived to tell the tale. Others took a 'zig-zag' approach to driving - bouncing from one bank to the other as they guided the Sundance down a straight stretch of the canal. Fortunately they built the Sundance tough - and while she came back less a bit of paint and carrying a bit more brickwork than what she started with.... she was still canal worthy.
About 'locks': Even when she was headed in the right direction, progress was slow - about walking pace(not kidding - even a bit slower!). Apart from lack of speed - the other obstacle to progress were the locks - we encountered 4 on our trip up the canal. These things were pretty crazy - all to do with gravity and water I think. And talk about pressure - in similar league to launching or retrieving a boat at a busy NZ launching ramp. On our first attempt veteren canal boaters looked on no doubt bemused and 'tut-tutting' at our virgin perfomance. Fortunately we were successful, but slow. By the time we hit our final lock on day 2 we were like a well oiled machine (arguably Glen's liberal pours of wine to clear out the provisions meant some were more well oiled than others).
About our lifestyle: As alluded to above there is not much going on either on the canals or in the canal boats. On a wander through the boat at any given time you would invariably find a mixture of the following: people eating, people sleeping, people cooking, someone steering - others bracing for imminent collision, and of course probably a few drinking. After a hard day's navagation we would skillfully moor the Sundance and then wander to the nearest pub. We visited some great country pubs - one with a 'skittles' table (where wasn't more to life than beer and skittles) and another (which Daz would have loved) were dogs almost out numbered patrons.... and this is inside the bar.........Great weekend - we'll be back in summer!
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