OUR DAYS OF WINE AND CHEESES

摘要

If complacency had begun to set in, our lunchtime stop was a bit of a leveller. We arrived at our last lock of the day just a bit too late to clear it before the start of the lock-keeper's lunch hour, so we had no choice but to moor up. Several problems though - there was nothing to moor to, no bollards, no landing stage. The bank was anything but solid and a very stiff breeze had chosen that moment to become even stiffer. For the next 15 minutes the silence was punctuated by the revving of the engine and the bow thrusts as I fought the best efforts of the wind to put us where we didn't want to go. Using some rather unladylike language, I railed against the vagaries of Mother Nature who was showing no sign of female solidarity! Lunch was eaten in a somewhat anxious atmosphere as we all relived that experience and anticipated with some dread the reverse process and the entry into the lock.