Mummy barge has her baby back and safe by her side. What a morningWe were to go with Petra in her car to Titchmarsh which is only a few  miles away and pick up Wind otter the lovely cream barge in the picture. It would be at about 10 ish that would mean we would be back to Walton before the gate closed and help another boat following us to moor up. We were relaxed and ready when Brother Steve came wandering over and him and Mark were discussing the bow of our boat. I popped my head up said hello . He then slipped in that two boats were coming in when the gate opened as well as Windotter and Concrete Steves Arion.We just carried on talking and then he said we would have to move our boat around to the bank to make room. Now earlier in the week when we had moved LAL we had had to move somebodies little rowboat out of the way and tie it on a mooting post. This wee boat had overnight got itself stuck under the staging and flooded sort of half sinking. We had to empty this before we could again move it out of the way. No bother empty a rowboat and do a complicated manoevre so the bow was facing the other pontoon so Mark could still work on the bow, all in five minutes before Petra cmae to pick us up. First job . Empty row boat.with a bucket . First problem , couldn't reach rowboat from the stageing . Answer slip down onto bow of rowboat and empty. Second problem boat moved and i got very wet feet. So very quickly i jumped into our infatable next to it and emptied it enough to move it.
First job done yea and still no sign of Petra.
Second job ,
 Use inflatable to row to mooring bouy and release  mooring rope and bring it back to boat and Mark. First problem I CAN'T ROW, Didn't know this till i was going in circles stuck next to LAL. I don't tink it was just me but the old wooden oars that were on LAL didn't seem to fit. I think they were to long as they kept hitting me in the face and when they weren't they were too deep in the water. I have the sneaky suspicion that the previous owners had an outboard.
I struggled for about 10 minutes got fed up with all the fannying about crawled around LAL back to the pontoon. Said to Mark that dinghys an arse ,we need an outboard. Just hold the Kayak i am using that. Jumped in and headed off without the skirt on thinking it would be quicker.It was but it meant getting a wet lap to go with the wet feet as i had been carting the mooring rop backand forth between the boat and the mooring bouy. Petras  running about wondering what on earth i was doing in the kayak . Well we got it moved and i had a very quick wardrobe change leaving damp and sticky explaining to Petra what was going on. GET IN THE CAR. We scooted up the road and got Windotter out just before Concrete steve and made down the channel.Then we met dinghy Cadet week out in force wizzing about completely oblivious to all the big boats trying to get in to the pond before the gate shut. Petra sent me below to get a old fashioned horn of the wall and i got to MAKE THEM AWARE OF OUR PRESENCE , very loudly and with much fun. But they were being daft coming very close to us and they could have got hurt.. I really want one of those horns. Concrete steve had worse problems with them as they thought it was a game to try and go under his bowsprit. He has a keel so had to stay with in the narrow channel unlike our flat bottom that meant we could dodge around the dinghys.. He was annoyed because they had supervisors in ribs that were just letting it all happen.
We got moored up And all was lovely Mark spent the afternoon welding his bowplate together and we got it on the bow . Pictures will come when it has been buffed to perfection to show off Marks marvelous work under very difficult conditions. He is an amazing Man and i am very proud of his i can do it myself attitude . It has saved us much much money in the past and often with far better results. Though if it wasn't for wonderwoman Petra lending him the welder and grinder it might have been a very different story. night night chaps and chapesses

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