Intrepid 4-17 May

Full photo album on Flickr  https://www.flickr.com/gp/jillwig/2A4sN5/

In the morning I realised I had left USB plug in car, so got off boat to walk back for it - but couldn't get back across to the marina so left it in the end.  Suki got off with me but hopped back on at the first bridge, and then realised I was still on the bank.  She got more and more stressed out, and just before the next bridge where she could have got off again she leapt off the front of the boat and swam over to me where I had to drag her out!  So wet on day 1!!.  Later that day we met a couple with a dog - who pranced away from Suki as she growled at it and promptly fell backwards into the canal and had to be dragged out by the owner.  Luckily they saw the funny side - apparently the dog had not been in the canal before.


Suki was ok for the first few days but once it got windy she started doing her scrabbling again.  I put the calming collar on her to see if it had any effect.  I am not sure whether it did or not. She was fine most night - just once having me up at 5 am to calm her down - and seemed to be happy sleeping on a blanket on the floor by Mike's bunk (proving something of an obstacle course for anyone wanting to use the loo in the night!). She tended to start the night sleeping with JJ. She didn't venture much into the boat during the day, but did eventually take to lying inside at the back when it was too hot or wet for her, and would occasionally sit there looking at me.  I put her on the lead when I was in the boat on my own if she started scrabbling, and she seemed to accept this and just lie at my feet quivering.  We had lots of lovely long walks along the towpath and she was often so tired in the evening that she would come in the boat at dinner time and sleep while we ate.  One night she even ignored home cooked pork scratchings!

The weather was good to us to begin with but deteriorated through the week.  It was a lovely on the day we did Foxton locks.  In the evening they rang a QP at Foxton church and then we went to the pub to eat! Unheard of!  Beryl and Chris came over to join us - Chris had never met Mike!

We got absolutely drenched on Thursday - I was out on the back while Mike was driving for a couple of hours. Then on Friday the wind got up and was very strong.  There were lots of double locks on our route, and at one of them we were advised by the boat ahead that they would wait for us at the next lock.  It was a 65ft boat taking disabled people for lunch at Normanton.  When we both got in the next lock they mentioned it was short and we would have to leave first so that they could manoevre - but of course we were too long as well and the gates wouldn't open.  However the volunteers pushed Intrepid right to the back of the lock - where the water was pouring in through leaky gates, and the water poured in the back of Intrepid flooding the deck and rushing down the stairs and into the hull!  JJ spent the rest of the trip trying to hand pump the water out.  In the end we had to fill the lock again and reverse out, then wait for them to go down and then we could go down. This made us a bit late at Normanton.  We knew that the church had its own landing stage, so when we saw this large pontoon next to the church we headed for it.  The wind slammed us against it - and then we saw the man waiting by a crumbling fishing platform which was actually the landing stage for the church.  The pontoon belonged to the neighbours who would not have been happy for us to stay there.  The wind kept us pinned against it so we spent some time trying to pole the boat off and round a tree and eventually we got away and went to moor at the pub - where the other boat was already moored.  They put their boat as far up one end as possible and we could then get half of Intrepid against the pontoon and Mike was able to get out at the middle hatch to go and ring.

When they got back to the boat I was helping Mike swing in through the middle hatch (because the back of the boat was not accessible) when his knee shot forward straight into my eye! It immediately puffed up and went black – and stayed black for the rest of the trip. Then later the first week I slipped trying to climb on to the boat over the rail at the back in the wet and fell heavily onto the rail badly bruising my inner thigh – there was a lot of f-ing for which I had to apologise later (and I needed a whole bag of galaxy chocolate buttons to get me over it!!).

On Saturday it was changeover day - the wind had brought down power lines and the trains from London were all delayed so Colin, Louise and Helen had to get the first one available and then get a taxi to the first tower.  Penny arrived ok by train, and Andy and Judy by car, and we then set off to the first tower hoping to get a pump out on the way as we hadn't had one all week!  We didn't manage it (and had to pump out manually at Loughborough that evening - an interesting initiation for the newcomers!).  JJ and I went shopping at Kegworth and then took it to the church.  There was a flower festival going on and they were serving tea and cakes so we had some.  The train travellers were already there tucking in!

Andy driving Intrepid past Wistow

The second week was quite good – with more people on board helping out etc and with some time to myself occasionally when they went ringing (mainly spent washing up!). There were long stretches without locks too so I could sit on my bunk and cross stitch which was nice. The weather improved a lot for the second half of the week and the walking and boating were very enjoyable.  We went up the Market Harborough arm and I rang a QP at the church before we all went to the Three Swans for dinner at my suggestion - not usually done on Intrepid trips.  So that is two pub meals I managed to get over the fortnight - something of a first! We also went up the Welford Arm.  Helen nearly lost her foot when she got the rope tangled round it at a lock and the rope tightened as the boat moved away!  When we got to Wistow we found that Sir Tim had died the previous week - which was rather sad.  The QP there failed, but we rang one later in his memory.

Group photo

Suki keeps JJ company as he paints the boat

As well as pumping out the hull, JJ also spent much of the fortnight repairing and painting bits of the boat which we damaged!  Judy tried to close the hatch doors whilst going through Foxton Locks, and one got squashed between the side and the boat, and Mike scraped the front along a lock bridge whilst he was concentrating on passing a boat the other side.

The Intrepid cake

Adrian joined us on the morning of the last day, ringing a QP of Bristol in place of Helen and managed to get in to the group photo!  Helen made an Intrepid cake which everyone enjoyed on the final evening.

I have some new wrist supports which I have now rung two quarter peals in and I am pleased with them - mind you the main problem was the dizziness since by the time I had to ring I found the land swaying when I stood on it!!  Suki hardly ate anything on the trip and she was shattered when she got home.  She took a couple of days to get back to her normal self  - I wonder if she finds the land swaying too?

We got home on Saturday evening and I spent Sunday and Monday doing a mammoth amount of washing – which then of course gave me a mammoth amount of ironing to do.