29th July 2011 - A day at the festival

The festival opens at 1200 so we stroll along the towpath to see what's happening. We get in and almost immediately check out the beer tent with a pint of Titanic Lifeboat. We slowly amble around the various stalls and presentations and end up having some Indian snacks form lunch accompanied by cider from the cider tent. It's all boaty stuff, we wander through the Viking encampment without being raped or pillaged and Penny checks out a couple of the new boats on show. I'm not interested as there is a fully loaded working boat arriving on the other side and all I want is for it to be me arriving with it. We walk over the bridge to the towpath historic boat moorings and walk down to Dallow Lock. There is a loaded working pair locking up (Clover and Fazeley) and as they do so another pair arrives to lock down to turn (Australia and Kangaroo).

Looking North from the footbridge:

And South:

Fazeley:

Australia, Kangaroo, Clover & Fazeley:

Trying to get Fazeley onto the mooring, there isn't enough water:

We return to the boat for me to resume duties as harbourmaster. I get a phone call asking if I would help out with the illuminated boat parade, of course I will! So I'm to be on duty at Shobnall Bridge, the end of the parade to prevent chaos should a boat return along the single channel before it's clear. Myself and Penny walk to the footbridge to listen to the band playing, but it wasn't so we return disappointed to Shobnall to await the illuminated boats. I can hear from the radio messages what is going on, and don't anticipate a boat getting to me until at least 1045. There's quite a crowd here and many more at the centre of things. Eventually we get the first three boats, but then a long wait as the next three decide to tie up on their moorings which are before the bridge. The crowd is disappointed and I radio this to control, but to no avail. We get five more in quick succession, the dwindling crowd is pleased and I struggle to contain  five boats in the winding hole while they all get turned and keep out of the way of each other. This is achieved, more by luck than judgement and at 0030 I return to boat for sleep, Penny having got cold and given up much earlier. It was good to see so many local people out to enjoy the boats, I understand all the houses further down joined in with lights and flags. What I should have done was to take pictures, but sorry, I did not!!