Ever Given

 Some of us slept great, some of us not so great. Anytime the water runs, ie toilet or hand wash, there’s a grinding noise. Being deaf has its advantages. Luckily for us, summer has come to Wiltshire. Ian had to feed Misty as I can’t manhandle her up the steps to the outside world, so I could laze in bed. The problem was that we couldn’t get to the kitchen to make coffee without passing through Vicky and Alex’s room. Tough, because we did it anyway. Eventually we roused enough people to do breakfast. It was still morning when we headed off towards Bath, just. No problem though because being on a canal boat means just letting life drift by. 

Captain Alex

Jack and Rose

Ground crew in control of a swing bridge

Relaxing on the water

 

Over the aqueduct

We passed over two glorious aqueducts, a couple of swing bridges, everyone had a go at driving, Misty had a walk, we stopped for a pleasant lunch, and even Alex was talking to complete strangers. 

Coming towards Bath we came around a corner to find this. 

The Ever Given

An unattended boat had become detached and was blocking the whole canal just near a bridge. A family from the boat behind, our crew, and a man just walking by minding his own business, had to wrangle it back into place and remoor it. What fun!

A little bit of boat wrangling

Tunnel in Bath

We approached Bath knowing we would have to turn here. Vicky, the navigator, had chosen a winding hole long enough for our immense boat. It was only just long enough and Ian had to struggle to keep it under control, which he did manfully. 

A small winding hole and an immense boat

We retraced our steps a little before mooring for the night above Bath and walking down

Bath

We were looking for food, but Bath on a Saturday night over the first bank holiday after lockdown is insanely busy. And we had a dog. We settled for Ian and I sitting outside Giraffe and the rest going in. We had a lovely romantic meal, people watching and thanking god we weren’t born in this era. The other’s meanwhile were on the cocktails.