Uniquely British?

I suspect someone may shoot me down in flames for saying that "messing about in boats" is a British "thing"! However a sunny weekend seems to bring out some eccentrics, some serious boaters, some out for a bit of fun and others for sport. The River Thames has some wonderful boaters!

Eleagant steam launch

Elegant steam launch, dedicated owner

This afternoon the eccentrics were out .....

I suppose they also qualify as boaters out for fun!

red coracle

Coracle

When John said to him " you don't often see coracles", he replied " I bought this one in Halfords"

I think his mate disagreed as they seemed to have a bit of a fight over it!

dueling coracles

Coracle duel

"Only joking" was the follow up line as his friend paddled away

blue coracle

Paddling the coracle

This was a very strange craft we saw moored below Days Lock, near the River Thame mouth

moored tree

Other boats on the River occasionally have a bit of trouble.

This cruiser left his mooring yesterday evening and promptly stalled and then flooded his engine trying to start. As we ate our meal at the Boat House on the river terrace we watched as he drifted backwards with the stream towards Wallingford Bridge. Our friend John (of John and Carolyn - they had been with us for the day) put a "tenner" on him hitting the bridge. The boater was fortunate - he missed! John was fortunate too, as he was only pretending to bet! A short while later we heard and saw that the cruiser was up and running and went off downstream.

drifting cruiser

Drifting cruiser - backwards (phone photo)

This monster decided to see off a nuisance narrowboat by turning by it and making it rock so much that the lady in the bathroom (me) thought that her home was in trouble. Ahh - the crew of Epiphany are made of sterner stuff and we were not to be moved - even if Salters Steamers wanted us to!

 

Salters Steamer Reading

Salters trip boat

Finally - one of our fellow narrowboaters who Tweets and is on his way down the Thames has had some encounters with cruiser captains who think that narrowboaters do not know anything about boating!

Justice

Narrowboat Justice

We "hello-ed" him as he passed us the other day. Now, I wonder what Steve Haywood's next article for a certain magazine (Canal Boat) might be?

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